Left to themselves with a fungus devastating

Photo Le Journal de Montréal, Marie-Eve Dumont
Charleen Carrier, and her spouse Marc Baron have in hand the report of the significant contamination at the dry rot mourner to their cottage.

Marie-Eve Dumont

Thursday, 8 February 2018 22:25

UPDATE
Thursday, 8 February 2018 22:25

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A couple of Laval is left completely to himself since he discovered there is more than one year a fungus devastating, that compels him to destroy his cottage.

“Nobody knows what to do with it, it has no options, it is just lost in the system. It was the dream of our life, our place to escape to “, drops Charleen Carrier, of which the cottage is infested by the dry rot mourner.

Mrs. Carrier and her spouse Marc Baron bought their cottage at the water’s edge in 2011 in the small town of Wentworth-Nord in the Laurentians.

It was in August of 2016, they discovered a white substance, a bit jelly-like, under a shelf in the garage.

Photo courtesy, Enviro-Option Inc

Dry rot is a fungus in the reddish color, leaving a white substance which looks like wadding.

“I immediately said that it could be dry rot because I had already saw a story on the subject, I remembered just the name. I’ve been researching all night, I had to know what was happening, ” recalls Ms. Carrier.

The woman 53-year-old was finally hired the firm of specialized Enviro-Option, and he determined that his cottage was indeed very affected by the dry rot mourner, nicknamed the “cancer building” and other types of fungi.

Not covered

Dry rot is very damaging, because it attacks the cellulose of the wood, and stretches easily, because it carries with it conditions conducive to its expansion.

Photo courtesy, Enviro-Option Inc

To decontaminate the house, the couple must destroy all the foundations in addition to the first four feet of the ground floor.

Insurance does not cover this kind of damage, but the government announced on Thursday that it was trying to find a way to financially support the victims of dry rot (see other text).

The costs for realizing such a maneuver are enormous ; the couple is resigned to tearing down everything.

“A company has made a submission to $ 75,000 to demolish the house, but it is necessary that we find ourselves a site where they will accept our waste. We do not guarantee that the spores of the fungus will not be thus propagated, or will remain on the ground, ” said Ms. Carrier.

The other option would be to burn the cottage, which would have been refused by specialized companies, because the house is on the edge of a lake.

Disaster

“We are, however, told, in the City, that it was part of a pilot project for the government for that fire-in-training may come to burn our cottage, but we need new ones,” laments she.

The couple hopes that the government assistance will come rapidly.

“Dry rot is not tangible like a flood, we don’t see it, but we find ourselves in the same situation, we lose also our home, and we do not use “, insists Ms. Carrier.

Soon for assistance to the victims, said the minister

The government announced on Thursday that it is putting in place measures to support the victims of dry rot mourner, in addition to seeking a way to help them financially.

“We don’t have the intention of dragging it out,” assured Lise Thériault, minister responsible for the Protection of consumers and of the Housing, in point of press.

Ms. Thériault has made public Thursday a report interdepartmental led by the Société d’habitation du Québec, commissioned in July 2016, on the situation of dry rot pleureuse, Quebec.

Assistance fund

It contains five recommendations, including those to inform the population to prevent the contamination, put in place methods to identify dry rot, and training of professionals to decontaminate adequately the affected homes, or to study the psychological effects in victims.

Maxime Boivin, spokesperson for the regroupement dry rot pleureuse, Quebec, who has himself had to destroy his house because of this fungus, and members of the Parti québécois, have welcomed the conclusions of the report. They recall, however, that it will provide a financial support for the people struggling with this contamination.

“We want to get the status of disaster victims, as well as an assistance fund, because financial institutions do not want to pay the money to repair it, it’s too risky. We hope to have the help in the next budget “, said Mr. Boivin.

The minister indicated that it was discussing with its counterpart in Finance to find the best way to financially support the victims and get funds to put in place all the measures proposed in the report.

More than 200 cases

A little more than 200 cases of dry rot mourner, have been recorded in Quebec since 2010, but Mr. Boivin fears that this is only the tip of the iceberg.

“In 2017 alone, there have been 98 cases in the province, and since the 1st January last, it was already 20 new, there really is an explosion of people affected,” he said.

Dry rot mourner is a fungus that feeds on wood, and causes its decomposition. It grows in environments that are dark, very humid and with little ventilation. It would, however, not harmful to health, but other molds that live in the same conditions can be.

The crawlspace of a home is often the ideal place for its expansion. There are cases in all regions of Quebec. In Montreal, the situation would be particularly worrisome on the Plateau-Mont-Royal and at Verdun, where the dry rot is spread from one crawlspace to another.