This is the first book to tackle all the issues relating to timber decay. It presents the facts and explores timber decay problems through case studies. These are illustrated with clear self-explanatory photographs for the reader to use as a diagnostic aid. Section 1 discusses timber as a living material, Section 2 deals with decay organisms and their habitat requirements. Section 3 moves on to the building as an environment for timber and discusses the ways in which wood responds to moisture change. Section 4 ends with an approach to timber decay which integrates knowledge on the decay...

This is a book about the insects and fungi that may appear in building timbers if unnoticed or unavoidable maintenance problems allow them to remain damp. There are two options if a problem is found. The building owner or occupier may require the organism to be rapidly exterminated and a document issued which seems to reassure that it will not come back. In this case they must accept generally expensive and frequently destructive chemical treatments using more or less noxious pesticides. Unfortunately each decade's panacea has usually become the next decade's poison and a pesticide...