The Gull's Call - Apr/May/Jun 2025

ArchitecturalNews

Recognizing & Understanding Dry Rot By Anisa Dominguez, Architectural Standards Manager D RY ROT IS PREVALENT IN HARBOR BAY DUE TO the perfect ingredients: moisture, a food source (wood), and temperatures between 70 and 77 degrees. Despite its name, dry rot only affects damp wood, producing fungus spores that spread through the air, and germinate once they land on wood that has been exposed to a high level of moisture. Wood will appear shrunken, puckered or wrinkled, and cracked. It will often be soft to the touch. Most of the homes in Harbor Bay were built with Douglas fir or pine, which unfortunately is prone to dry rot. It often starts near the cut edge of a piece of wood, such as on window or door trim, but it can occur anywhere. Areas to watch are flat surfaces, anywhere two pieces of wood are joined together, and areas where water may gather. Check your house regularly. Watch for warning signs and problem areas where water collects. If not too severe, wood can be repaired by digging out the dry rot and filling the wood with a compound. If the siding or trim needs to be replaced, consider a more stable wood that is resistant to dry rot, such as cedar. Better yet, choose fiber cement siding, such as James Hardie, which is unaffected by dry rot.

EARTHQUAKE RETROFITTING Since the homes in Harbor Bay were built in the 70s, 80s and 90s, they were not constructed to the latest standards for earthquake protection. This means that our homes were built with a limited amount of hold downs that anchor the walls to the foundation. Additionally, the shear walls (ply wood that attached to the studs to help strengthen them) are likely covering only half the house. If you decide to replace your siding, your contractor will likely add ply wood to all exterior surfaces so that your entire home has shear walls. You can also take this opportunity to add additional hold downs (photo 4) once the exterior walls are opened before the shear wall is installed. It’s a fairly simple job and this will strengthen the wall-to-foundation supports. I installed about 13 of these around the perimeter of the house.

Photo 4: Retrofit hold down

THE EARTHQUAKE SOFT-STORY RETROFIT The California Earthquake Authority website provides information on another retrofit applicable to Harbor Bay homes, Earthquake Soft-Story (ESS) earthquake retrofit. This involves strengthening the garage foundation and walls because this area tends to be the most vulnerable in an earthquake because of the living space above the garage. Owners can apply for grants (over $10,000) to help subsidize these retrofits. There are approved contractors listed on the CEA website. For more information visit: https://tinyurl.com/bdenp9je, or scan the QR code below.

Remember to submit an architectural application and wait for approval from the Community Architectural Committee (CAC) prior to commencing work. Although repairing dry rot on a couple pieces of window trim may just seem like maintenance, we find that more often than not, the dry rot is more extensive than originally thought. Please contact the Architectural Department if you have any questions. Example of dry rot.

April | May | June 2025 25

The Gull’s Call