Yesterday, Melinda called me into the den by saying, "Honey, can you come here? Something is scaring me in here." I wasn't sure what to expect, but ended up finding something not good. A bit of bright orange and yellow fungus, about the size of a silver dollar was growing at the base board.
Then, sliding a piece of furniture aside revealed several larger growths in the corner.
Then I noticed that several planks of the hardwood floor in that area were severely warped (and that we obviously had a leak of some sort). This portion of the house has no crawlspace beneath it. It's on a concrete slab, and is built into the side of the hill (one half of the room is essentially a basement, since it's built into the hill). Cutting away a portion of drywall exposed damp insulation, several completely rotten wall studs, some moist dirt with creepy crawlies, and a not-so-pleasant musty odor. The moisture is not coming from the top, it is definitely coming from the bottom. I'm guessing there is a crack in the concrete slab, or the concrete wall in the corner.
Then, sliding a piece of furniture aside revealed several larger growths in the corner.
Then I noticed that several planks of the hardwood floor in that area were severely warped (and that we obviously had a leak of some sort). This portion of the house has no crawlspace beneath it. It's on a concrete slab, and is built into the side of the hill (one half of the room is essentially a basement, since it's built into the hill). Cutting away a portion of drywall exposed damp insulation, several completely rotten wall studs, some moist dirt with creepy crawlies, and a not-so-pleasant musty odor. The moisture is not coming from the top, it is definitely coming from the bottom. I'm guessing there is a crack in the concrete slab, or the concrete wall in the corner. 
2 comments:
did you ever figure out what this was or where it was coming from? we have something that looks similar growing on our back deck between the planks of wood.
As far as we can tell, the fungus was the result of moisture getting down into the wall from the outside, and remaining damp for a long period of time. 4 of the 2x4 studs in our wall were completely rotted. If wood is getting wet, and not thoroughly drying out for a period of time, fungus will begin growing. I would recommend drying the wood out, and then sealing between the planks. If the wood has already begun rotting, you'll want to replace the planks, and then seal. Good luck!!
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