Rot Detection, Rate of Decay

[Jim Katen]

Many years ago, I attended a presentation by Lonnie Anderson about rot. One of the things he taught was the use of the “pick testâ€

[hausdok]

Hi Jim,

I'm not sure who Lonnie Anderson is, but did you look at this article from the archives? It has some pretty good references accompanying it. The formatting isn't the best in the world, I was still having a hard time figuring out how to do it at the time and the photos are grainy black and white types.

https://www.inspectorsjournal.com/forum ... IC_ID=2101

OT - OF!!!

Mike

[Jim Katen]

Originally posted by hausdok

Hi Jim,

I'm not sure who Lonnie Anderson is,

He's a WDO guru who works (worked?) for Terminix in California. In the early '90s he did a series of educational classes across Oregon & Washington. He's an excellent speaker.

but did you look at this article from the archives? It has some pretty good references accompanying it. . .

I hadn't seen that before. The following section is what I was looking for:

For example, research indicates that with as little as a 3-percent weight loss due to decay fungi attack, there can be as much as a 70-percent loss of strength (Eslyn et al., 1979). Unfortunately, such small amounts of damage are difficult to detect visually without the use of a microscope (Forest Products Laboratory, 1999).

The first strength property to be affected is toughness: the ability to withstand impact(Forest Products laboratory, 1999). With just a 1-percent weight loss wood loses 6 to 50 percent of its toughness, and with a 10-percent weight loss over 50 percent of toughness is lost. The “pick testâ€