How infectious / contageous is rot?

[Alan ashore]

I've heard it said that the spores are fairly widespread in the air anyway, but my question really is how much extra risk do you expose your boat to by mooring close to something which is manifestly infected? In my specific case I'm talking about the 30 year old Greenheart timber piles holding our pontoon, but other examples could include old tree trunks, bankside piling, other boats, etc etc.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Dry Rot is VERY infectious; it spreads through old buildings (such as churches) like wildfire and is very difficult to get rid of as the main body of the fungus is microscopic threads that spread through wood before the fruiting bodies appear - so the rot always spreads a LOT further than the visible signs.

However, in this context it will be wet rot, of which I have no experience. If it was really a problem, surely there would be lots of accounts of it? After all, tying wooden ships up to piles that are likely to be partly rotten is not a new situation.

 

[Capt. Clueless]

Dry rot is usually found for 1 example in old houses where there is maybe a timber ground floor sitting on joists where the ends have got damp and the air bricks have been closed off, therefore creating a nice humidity for spores to grow. You have to rip out most of it and also irrigate the walls surrounding it before usually replacing with new. In other words dry rot is totally different to the type of rot you suggest could happen.
I hardly think you're going to suffer any wet rot.......unless you expose any untreated timbers for long periods of time to the elements. Therefore you won't "catch" anything untoward from a pontoon, pilings etc.

 

[d4dunmor]

Heard that antifreeze is used to kill rot in boats it kills spores as well
Anybody tried it ??
I have to treat what seams localised rot around the beam shelf in a fishing boat restoration !

 

[Alan ashore]

Heard that antifreeze is used to kill rot in boats it kills spores as well
Anybody tried it ??
I have to treat what seams localised rot around the beam shelf in a fishing boat restoration !

There have been discussions on this in the forum from time to time over the years, often citing the following article which provides experimental evidence that Glycol alone is effective; albeit the author recommends a cocktail of glycol and borates (he uses the expression "belt and braces").

http://www.simplicityboats.com/chemorot.html