Signs of Wood Rot

Before you can learn how to repair wood rot in walls, you should understand how to discover wood rot in the first place. This is especially important if you don’t frequently visit your crawl space because you need to know when to contact a JES expert for more information.

If you’re trying to discover wood rot in your home, keep an eye out for these potential signs you’ll see around your home.

Bouncy Floors

This is possibly one of the most telltale signs of wood rot. When you move to certain areas of the house, does it feel like it bounces down, then bounces back up? This “bounciness” comes from the way the wood rot eats away at the inside of your floor joists.

If your floor ever feels like it’s not fully stable, you need to schedule a crawl space inspection with JES. The stability of your foundation is supposed to maintain your home for many years, and having a “bouncy” floor can be a very serious sign that something’s wrong.

Musty Odors

Homes have a variety of odors, some good and some bad. Not every odor means something is wrong, but a somewhat “musty” smell isn’t a good sign. That’s because it often comes from the fungus that causes wood rot or from mold growing under or inside your home.

Any time you smell a strange odor in your home, you should try to discern the causes of the odor. If you find that it’s just some burned food, it’s all well and good. However, if you can’t find the cause, you may want to contact JES to describe the smell and see whether it might be related to wood rot.

Unusual Humidity

Wood rot fungus grows because of the overwhelming humidity in a crawl space that isn’t encapsulated. Because of the way air moves through your home, that humidity can easily move up into the rest of your house, causing unnecessary humidity in your home as a whole.

Any time you’re starting to experience humidity that’s strange for the time of year or for the humidity levels outside, there’s probably a problem. Whether it’s standing water in your crawl space, a leak in your walls, or something else, that humidity can become a larger problem, and you need to get a JES expert to help.