Dry rot

Michelle has chiseled out the old plaster from a small room on the first floor and revealed some timbers with a very bad case of dry rot. This is actually in the newest part of the main chateau. However the quality of build here is probably the worst in the whole chateau too! The roof must have been leaking 

onto these beams for many years before it was eventually repaired. Some were so bad that they literally just turned to dust as I pulled them out! They seem to have been put in to support the beams in the ceiling but as we are taking these out too it does not matter. We have plenty of old oak beams so I think we will replace them just to keep the history of the room. This room will be a bathroom so some of it will be dry lined ready for tiling and the rest left as exposed stone. We will certainly leave the replacement beams exposed.