Moisture or Fire Damage in Attic?

[member deleted]

Does this look like previous fire damage or moisture damage. The rafters look scorched to me, but the sellers insist that there has not been a fire. They did state that the roof collapsed in 2000 and a new roof was installed. You can see from the pictures that new sheathing was placed on the existing (1918) roof structure.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Kevin

Download Attachment: jpg1.jpg

257.16 KB

Download Attachment: jpg2.jpg

238.08 KB

Download Attachment: jpg3.jpg

260.56 KB

[Brian G]

Kevin,

I've seen very dark framing like that in old houses before (rough-cut heart pine). I'm not sure what the cause is, but I don't believe it's fire. I've never found any "alligatoring" or other definitive tell-tale fire signs myself.

For what it's worth.

Brian G.

[Chad Fabry]

There's tons of mold in that there attic.The pine does darken as it ages, the resins in the wood oxidize and change the color. That and the fact that it's probably had more than a couple leaks in the last 90 years or so. Doesn't look burnt to me.

[Rob Amaral]

My view of these pix is dark. However, did you scrape this wood? Looks burned to me, man.. Pyrolized from this vantage point... seen it many times... But the pix are difficult for me to determine this. Scrape it, smell it... charcoal is charcoal...

[Bruce Thomas]

It sure looks like charcoal to me. The gator skin gives it away. It's skip sheathing for shakes or slate. The attic fire didn't burn long enough to get into the rafters as deeply as the sheathing. Rob is right you have to scrape it to be sure. In any case add ventelation to reduce the mold.

Bruce

[Terence McCann]

Doesn't look burnt from what I can make out but check as Rob stated.

[kurt]

I'm coming in the "not burnt" side.

I see stuff like this a lot; initially it looks like a fire, but it's just POS old framing.

But, charcoal is charcoal; give it the sniff test.

[member deleted]

Thanks for all your replies!

Kevin

[chrisprickett]

I vote water damage/mold. There's a rusted piece of a bracket or something, that would likely be scorched had there been a fire.

[hausdok]

Yeah,

I'm seeing wood rot. Those framing members that "look" still healthy are probably full of incipient rot. All it needs is some wintertime moisture condensing on the underside of that deck and it'll begin to propagate again.

Won't be long before it begins to cave again.

OT - OF!!!

M.

[Terence McCann]

Taken from one of your boiler pics.

I'm sure the ventilation wasn't to good to begin with but blocking vents doesn't help matters as noted in the attached picture.

I wonder if they had problems with freezing water pipes in the attic??

Download Attachment: attic.jpg

67.65 KB

[member deleted]

Terence,

Thanks for the input. Yes, I wrote that up as well as many other items. It took me about 4 hours to complete this report. Great learning experience for me!!

Thanks,

Kevin