We had some moister in our attic space due to bad ventalation. Recently they installed more vents giving it good ventalation, but I notice small white spores on some of the rafters. Is this the start of dry rot? Will the progression stop now that there is proper ventalation? How is this treated?
We are about to blow in R50 insullation soon. It will be difficult to move around up there afterwards so I'd like to do what I can before then.

Did you see the spores before the new ventilation work was done? If so, the added ventilation should dry things out and prevent the further growth of fungi. The white spores are most likely due to the abundance of moisture in the attic space-I'm not sure if they're the beginning of dry rot, but they are certainly not desirable in any structure. You may want to do some testing of humidity levels in the attic space before you have the insulation blown in. Also a few questions may need to be answered to help clear up the situation. How old is the house? Is there a vapor barrier installed in the ceiling? Without a vapor barrier-all the insulation in the world won't stop moisture from passing through the ceiling into the attic. A lot of older homes (especially if they're lath and plaster) don't have much of a barrier.What type of construction framing is present (post and beam, conventional stud/plate, balloon) these all may change the way you would approach your moisture problem. What is the weather pattern in your location-are you insulating for heat retention, i.e. northern climate or more for air conditioning? Just some thoughts-I hope that they are of some help.

PS I'm in the northeast-it's already cold enough to be appreciating our insulation and our woodstove.

Is there a lot? Can you send a picture?

YOu want to be sure you take out all wet or damp insulation that is existing. Allow it to dry out with that new ventilation. It is also very important that you have eave ventilation.

This will aid in bringing up the air from the lower area, allowing it to reach the top ventilation along the roof sheathing. You want it to move. Make sure you have baffles inserted around the area's where the eave ventilation so that when you place you new insulation in, that insulation won't block the air that is needed from the eaves.

How about a pic? Is that possible? If there is mold on your structure in your attic, removing it is helpful. Just remember safety in all aspects of insulation and mold.

Thank you.

I have pictures I took the other day. I don't see an option to post pictures here, is there one? Please email me at [email protected] and I'll send them. The insullation guys had a look and say it's probably just a mold. Everything is dry now with the new vents installed.

The house is about 40years old in Vancouver because. It is a wet climate here, not too much freezing, just a few months a year in winter. We're insullating for both seasons, to keep the warmth in during the winter, and it does get hot during the summer. I was told it will keep the heat from the attic out of the house. There is currently R7 batting up there.
The roof is about 15years old on a 20 year warranty. Asphalt shingles over tar paper. I called the roofers down to check it out about 6 months ago. No leaks, the shingles are good and no rotten wood in the roof. They said we needed to install more vents, which they did. What bothers me is that they covered their asses by saying there was no mold due to moister. That's another story in progress though.

There is a plastic poly vapor barrier under the beams and insulation but it is old, brittle and cracking. I was told that latex paint on the ceilings of the rooms will be a barrier, is this true?
It looks like post and beam construction. All wood with a stucco exterior.
The insullation company is now offering to fog the attic space with a mold killing cemical he called "Concoronbian" I can't spell it and can't find anything close on search engines. Any thoughts?
The wood is solid, I was up there hitting and poking it with the mag light. As I did the white spores would fall off, and come off to the touch. Everything is dry.

If it is dry rot fungus, I want to stop it before it gets worse. We're hoping it's just mold.
I was worried because I read that dry rot fungus lives inside the wood, and white fungus forms on the outside.

Thank you all for your time and opinons. Email me at [email protected] and I'll send the pictures.

Here are some of the pictures.

You should really get a test done. I do understand the "it's dry - don't worry" attitude, but you don't really know just by looking, do you?

Take a sharp object, like a key and press that into the wood where you see this problem.
Is it soft, spongy or brittle?

I am taking some more time looking at your pics. I see in the first pic the sheathing close to the ext. of your house, the wood looks darker. Is this area still wet, or is just dark?
Is it slimy, if it is wet?

I don't know about this "chemical" they are suggesting to use. But you really had mositure problems by the look of it.

Without a test, it would be hard to determine if it will be okay. In the summer, even with vapor barrier, dry insulation and ventilation it's going to get humid up there. Not doing anything doesn't seem an option.

Please make sure you have ventilation at the eaves and top to help keep circulation in your attic. Also, do not reuse any damp or wet insulation, and in fact - make sure you pull it out and let eveything dry for a while. Relay any vapor barrier that is damaged only after it's dry.
If the contractor who is doing your work wants to do things on a schedule, remember that this is where overdoing things is reasonable.

Removing mold on surfaces is always your best bet, but check out this spray they want to use and see how effective it is suppose to be.

Also, look into "ridgemaster" if you lack a ridge vent. It will save a fortune down the road. Having soffit vents help a bit, but heat rises and so will the condensation in the hot air. Having ridge and soffit vents is the best solution to maintain a good air flow up there, so you don't end up incubating new mold.
P.S. Blown insulaion is great for placec you can't access, but if you can go up there, put kraft faced bats in your ceiling joists.

Also, what kind of vent did the "roofers" install?

Dhatra, I disagree. Faced batts in ceiling joists? Do you mean on top side of the ceiling in the joists? NOT against the roofing sheathing in the joist cavity?

The idea is to keep the warm air below the ceiling in conditioned area during cold, and cool air below the ceiling during hot weather. You won't keep the sheathing from getting warm in the summer.
You need proper "air in" and "air out". The only time we put insulation in the cavity against the sheathing of a roof is in a cathedral type roof, or similar. Even then we want air between the insulation and sheathing by creating a baffle. I hope I understand you when you say " in the ceiling joist" right?

Normally, I don't use paper faced batts, more mold opportunity, but some do it. The added vapor barrier is best on the side of the insulation against the condition side of the ceiling. Is this what you are trying to say?

In an open attic, definitely not between the rafters. I meant the ceiling joists. On the other hand if we were talking about cathedral ceilings, you'd have soffit vents, ridge vent, and between the insulation and roof sheathing that WOULD be between the rafters in this instance, I personally like to use the styrofoam channel that gets stapled to the inside of the sheathing to create a clear airway from top to bottom. Those things you refer to as "joist cavities" are not joists. They are called rafters. A joist encloses living space, tying walls together. Even on a flat roof the wood that the sheathing and roofing is installed on is known as rafters.

Krayziefoo I'm looking at your pics and it looks like there is insulation by the extension cord and the vapor barrier is showing if so there's a big problem here on the get go which would explain the moisture. If this is also true and the insulation company didn't pick up on that then they are not on top of this whatsoever.

NEVER should a vapor barrier in an attic face the cold side. This traps moisture and actually lowers the (R) value so much so that if insulation has 5% of moisture in it, it loses 95% of its insul Quality's.

On that note if the insul vapor barrier is facing the cold side you MUST Remove what's there an do this RIGHT. A min 6 Mil plastic vapor barrier in all joist bays then blow insul in on top of that. If you add what's there and the vapor barrier is in the Middle of the added insul you just wasted a lot of money and wait till you see it rain through the ceiling from trapped moisture.
Trapped moisture from a wrongly installed barrier location causes what you see now.

So to tweak this Don''t blow the insul out past the façade into the overhang. If at all possible Vent the soffit or at least make sure the blown insul has a min of 2" air space from roof decking on the eves.

Read some of these sites and get back.

http://www.southface.org/web/resourc...lings_4pdf.pdf

BSD-102: Understanding Attic Ventilation —

BSD-106: Understanding Vapor Barriers —

Ice Dams and Attic Condensation

Update.

It turns out that it is just a white mold caused from bad ventilation over the years since they did the roof 10years ago. We've gone up and wiped off most of the surface mold, then sprayed 'Benifact' all over. It's a natural mold and fungus killing solution.
Someone told me that it looks like these boards where used when forming the concrete. So some of the white is the remains of the concrete.
The ventilation isn't an issue anymore. We will have to re-check after they blow in the R43 to the R7 batting that is up there, making it R50 value.

That dark area you where asking about, isn't wet anymore. There is one area that has a good water stain on it though, but everything seems dry now. The roofers say there isn't a problem in this area, but I think different. Here's a picture.

I appresiate all the feedback and advice on this issue. It was an eye opener. Thank you.

Picture of the dark area of the roof

Oops, I didn't read 21boat's reply before I posted the last response.

The batting up there has a paper attached to it on that one side. Under the batting is a plastic sheet of poly plastic running threwout the entire area under the joists.

That is the original insullation from about 30years ago.

Do you mean that blowing ontop of that paper side will cause a moister problem?