Greenserve offers professional foundation crack repair services across the Greater Charlotte area. While most common in basements and crawl spaces, foundation cracks can appear in a number of areas within a home. Our team can help you fix cracks of any size and leaking joints before they turn into a bigger problem. We evaluate the cracks in your foundation, then recommend solutions tailored to your Saggy or squeaky floors, musty odors, and soft wood around your home could be signs that wood is deteriorating beneath your home. While wood rot often occurs in damp crawl spaces, it can happen anywhere exposed to long-term moisture. Left untreated, wood rot can weaken the structural components of your home, like joists and exterior walls.
As a family-operated business serving the Greater Charlotte area, we offer wood rot repair, mold remediation, structural repair services, and honest recommendations. Our team looks at the big picture; not only the damaged wood, but also the moisture, leaks, or humidity issues that allowed it to develop in the first place. Then, we’ll build a custom solution designed around your home’s needs.
Different Types of Crawl Space Rot
Wood rot is the broad term used to describe the fungal decay that damages wood after it’s exposed to moisture.
- Wet rot develops when wood stays consistently damp from leaks, condensation, or high humidity. Over time, it can weaken floor joists and subflooring, often resulting in uneven and bouncy floors.
- Dry rot also develops with moisture, but can spread even after the wood itself is dry and causes serious damage.
There are different types of rot that affects the wood:
Brown Rot
A type of dry rot that causes wood to lose its strength quickly. It can make softwood look dark brown, dry, and broken into smaller pieces. Wood infected with brown rot is especially important to remediate to prevent spreading.
White Rot
Common in hardwood and can resemble a spiderweb, with stringy white streaks. White rot requires steady moisture and is often accompanied by white fuzzy mold, which can lead to structural damage.
Soft Rot
Develops when wood stays wet for long periods of time, which is common in many Charlotte-area crawl spaces, and is often a sign of a larger moisture problem. Wood affected by soft rot may be darker from the saturation and puncture easily with a screwdriver.
How to Tell the Difference Between Rot, Mold, and Insects
Different types of wood damage can look similar, and the right repair starts with identifying the cause.
- Wood rot: Decay fungi break down the wood itself. You may notice soft, spongy, brittle, cracked, or crumbling framing.
- Mold: Mold grows on the surface of wood, insulation, drywall, and other materials. It can create musty odors and air quality concerns, but it doesn’t weaken wood the same way rot does.
- Termites or carpenter ants: Insects chew or tunnel through wood. Look for small piles of sawdust-like material, tunnels, or visible insect activity.
Get Ahead of Wood Rot with Greenserve
We’ve helped thousands of homeowners across Greater Charlotte protect their homes in our over 25 years of combined experience. Our team identifies what caused the wood rot before recommending the right solution, which may include crawl space encapsulation, waterproofing, or dehumidification. We remove mold and damaged materials before installing moisture-control solutions, and can repair weakened joists, beams, and girders when needed.
