Video - Rare Fungus Attacks East Bay Home

[Guest guest]

Rare Fungus Attacks East Bay Home

CBS 5 - San Francisco,CA*

Sue Kwon

Reporting

http://cbs5.com/seenon/local_story_306135001.html

(CBS 5) OAKLAND Oakland hills homeowner Morlan first noticed a

fungus growing in his kitchen a year and a half ago.

" We took this entire corner apart, redid the studs, you can see this

is brand new, " he said.

He assumed it was ordinary dry rot. " We looked a long time to try to

find where the water was coming in to cause this, couldn't find it,

but didn't know any better, so we just went ahead and repaired it, "

Morlan said.

The wall was fixed, but the weird mushrooms returned. " About six

weeks ago, two months ago I saw the telltale signs of an orange

mushroom growing out of my baseboard, " he said.

Morlan realized this wasn't ordinary dry rot after all. " This had

already eaten through the windowsill and the framing members of the

wall up to about 2 to 3 feet. "

It turns out, fixing the damage only gave fresh food for a rare

fungus, known as poria.

" As soon as the inspector said poria, the house eating fungus, it

kind added an extra layer of dread because I remembered the horror

stories. Scary stories about houses being eaten in a year, two

years. right down to the last piece of wood, " Morlan recalled.

The so-called house eating fungus is most common in the Gulf states,

but it has attacked more than 200 homes in Northern and Southern

California. The damage can be devastating.

" You'll see them often behind a door you don't open so often, "

scientist Steve Quarles told us. " The feeling that you're always

dusting, always cleaning, there's always dirt. "

Quarles works at the University of California ative Extension.

He's what you might call a fungus detective.

" This is a closeup of where the rhizomorph came into the building

and climbed up the wall, " Quarles said.

The root-like rhizomorph is poria's secret weapon for survival

because it can carry its own water supply.

The fungus occurs naturally in forest soil and it can get to your

house in a load of landscaping dirt, or migrate from a dead tree

stump.

The only way to get rid of the fungus is to dig it out -- and the

roots can grow up to 25 feet long. There are no chemical treatments,

so prevention is your best defense. Keep your foundation exposed and

dry, and check for cracks. Anything to keep the fungus from creeping

inside.

" You need to change that detail and often it's very easy to say and

very expensive to do, " Quarles said.

" We'll go quite north of $10,000 dollars, " Morlan pointed out - an

expense not covered by homeowner's insurance.

But " relatively speaking we're pretty lucky that we didn't find it

in 80 percent of the rest of the house, which would mean the next

earthquake would make the thing collapse. "

--------------------------

To contact Structural Renewal, Inc. about suspected poria, email

srioffice1@....