Is mold on plates and studs okay?

[zed]

Hey,I've noticed some mold or mildew on some of my plates and studs that I'm framing my walls with.I live in northeast Georgia and Its been mostly rainy/cloudy for the past few days.Even though they were covered with plastic,I think they must have been a little bit moist under there and didnt have a chance to dry out.Is this common?I was going to try to sand it off,but if it just comes back am I wasting my time?I would hate to hear that the wood is ruined, but I need to know.just for the record,the wood WAS exposed to a couple of light rains when I first got it, but it had plenty of time to dry out,before these heavy rains we've had the past few days(during which I covered it up).I was told a little rain wont hurt, as long as it can dry out.But anyways,if anyone can fill me in I'd greatly appreciate it. Zed

[Don_P]

It won't hurt it. What you are most likely seeing is the fruiting bodies of bluestain fungi. When you sand it you are basically mowing the grass, the hyphae of the tops you are sanding extend down into the sapwood, another name for this fungi is sapstain. Bluestain feeds off of the sugars within the cell lumen (the void in the center of the cell) not on the cell walls themselves. White and brownrot fungi are dining on the cell wall and are cause for concern. Bluestain can be many colors so don't jump the gun.

Spend your time getting under roof not sanding. Some people can be made ill sanding and inhaling this stuff so that is not the right approach. Get it dried in and then wipe it down with a diluted bleach solution and get airflow to redry it.

The spores are everywhere so we can't avoid them. The methods of control are;
get outside of it's temperature range- we are dead in the middle of its happy place right now. (this is the real reason for winter cutting, too cold for fungi to grow)
Deny it food- poison its food source, there are chemicals that can poison the wood, and you.
Deny it oxygen- that is the reason you see sprinklers on piles of logs or logs ponded, a layer of water keeps it from getting adequate oxygen.
Deny it moisture- that's the most common method, get and keep the wood dry.

Bluestain is not eating the wood but it is telling you the conditions are right for the rotters to move in, hurry to dry in. Yup, I know, been there, its frustrating, all you can do is make hay when the sun is shining.

Borate doesn't do much to bluestain but does inhibit the rotters and wood eating insects. Borate has low mammalian toxicity, google boracare, nisus corp makes it. It doesn't hurt a thing to apply it when you get under roof. I can give you a recipe for a chemically identical mix that costs a fraction of their price if you want to go that route.

Long post but the gist of it is, no cause for alarm, oh and take that plastic off the instant the rain stops, its a mold greenhouse and drives the vapor into the wood, not good.

[zed]

Hey Don,thanks for the reply.Very informative.
Yeah,It sounds like bluestain.I'll take you up on that borate recipe,if you don't mind.
Funny,It hasn't rained here in georgia all july,but now that august has rolled around i think i'm gonna frame me an ark instead of a house.How's virginia?

[Don_P]

The maters and taters are blighting and I'm getting ready to sprout roots :)

If you go to a real farm supply they will have or can get 50 pound sacks of Solubor, a boron ammendment for tomato and pepper growers. This is the same thing as Timbor, disodium octaborate tetrahydrate, the insecticide/fungicide listed for wood. I mix it at 1 to 1-1/2 pounds per gallon of water, hot water mixes better. When it's white the mix is in suspension, when it clears you have a solution- that is Timbor. To turn that into Boracare, they mix that with ethylene glycol... anti freeze. The purpose of any glycol is to slow drying because borate penetrates saturated wood only so the more wet on wet coats you can hit it with and prevent drying in between the deeper it penetrates. RV or low tox anti freeze will do the same thing, nothing magic there it is just slowing the drying. I usually add about a half gallon per 5 gallon batch, you can adjust according to the drying conditions you have. This ain't fancy perfume, do it up. At the far extreme I kept an old heavily infested log cabin wet for a month. Once you see white residue building on the surface there is a "wall" of crystals in the wood, you won't get any more in, this is because it dried. Brush or spray.