Wet/Dry Rot Hyphae in Chimney?

oursurveysaid · 6 Jan 2021

Can anyone tell what these fine grey strands are in my chimney flue? There was wet and dry rot in this house when I bought it, but the ground floor timbers have all been replaced with pressure treated ones, and isolated from the masonry with a plastic DPC. The timbers have a moisture content of around 14%.

There are a few similar strands dangling from the new ground floor timbers. They all seem to have a tiny spec of wood or brick on the end. It seems there's some sort of fungus using a bit of material as a weight to try and find a water source! I'll be sweeping them away and treating the masonry but I want to try and stop them coming back.

The bricks are old (1880), porous, and the mortar looks like lime and earth! It turns to mud when it's wet.

Any help appreciated.

Lower · 6 Jan 2021

They look like dusty cobwebs to me.

KenGMac · 6 Jan 2021

Good images!

As above, cobwebs

tel765 · 6 Jan 2021

Cobwebs.
But why not post pics of the suspicious threads on the replacement joists?

Nige F · 7 Jan 2021

Make that 4 for cobwebs

^woody^ · 7 Jan 2021

KenGMac · 7 Jan 2021

Is that a Black Widow or just a Merry widow

^woody^ · 7 Jan 2021

KenGMac said:
Is that a Black Widow or just a Merry widow

Might be a money spider, but I wouldn't know what one looks like.

KenGMac · 7 Jan 2021

My money spider ran off, last time I saw him he was scuttling into my local Bank

oursurveysaid · 14 Jan 2021

Haaa! Thanks for quelling my paranoia. Since I saw my subfloor full of candy floss when I moved in, I just assume everything is rot. I’ll put the chemicals away.

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Wet/Dry Rot Hyphae in Chimney?

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