During a period of 2 years and 3 months (1 January 2001 - 20 March 2003) Mycoteam had 3161 consultations in buildings in southern Norway, 1428 revealing damage from decay fungi. One consultation often revealed several occurrences of fungi, and the total number of occurrences of decay fungi was 3434. Thirty-five different species/genera/groups of decay fungi were recorded. During this period brown rot was more frequent (77.4 %) than soft rot (19.2 %) and white rot (3.4 %). Coniophora puteana (16.3 %) and Serpula lacrymans (16 %) were the most frequently identified species. Different species of the genus Antrodia were recorded in 18.4 % of the occurrences, while the group Corticiaceae accounted for 5.7 % and soft rot for 15.8 %. Investigations of damaged structural parts of buildings showed that decay fungi were most common in walls (18.3 %). Floor damage accounted for 13.4 % of the damaged structures and roofs for 8.8 %. Nearly all species and groups of the investigated fungi were most common indoors. Gloeophyllum sepiarium on the other hand was most common outdoors, and Dacrymyces stillatus was exclusively found outdoors. The Norwegian data were compared with published time series data from Denmark (1946-66, 1966-71, 1974-75, 1982) and Finland (1978-84, 1985-88). S. lacrymans and C. puteana were the most frequent species in these datasets too. Antrodia spp. were also common in the Finnish reports, but barely recorded (as identified species) in Denmark. In both the Danish and the Finnish data, damage to floors is the most frequently recorded structural damage in buildings.

Download document (649 kb)
free for the members of IRG. Available if purchased.

Purchase this document