Woodworm......

[Alison556]

Anybody that looks at my posts will be thinking I'm living in a death trap, but anyway.

I've been advised that there is severe to moderate woodworm in certain areas of the floors throughout the house (I knew this - I know a woodworm hole when I see one!!).

Only problem is, the specialist company are telling me that I have to move out of the house and every floorboard has to come up for them to treat the floors and joists.

Does this sound a bit extreme?

It really is a complete no-go to move out of the house - my gran lives with me and she's 84 and in pretty bad health and there's no way she could cope with moving out then moving back in.

I'm pretty exasperated by the whole thing.

Would it be worth getting another specialist company in to see if they can do the treatment without all the upheaval, or am I just gonna have to bite the bullet.......

 

[toptec]

Hi Unlucky Alison!

Like you I have woodworm in one of my bedroom floors and in two of the rafters in my garage.

I've done pretty extensive research and spoke to a company in the West Country who supply the treatments to get rid of the little buggers.

The chemical is Boron and can be applied with a sprayer or brush. It is dry in one hour and the treated room can be re-occupied within a couple of hours. They recommend the whole house is treated. I will be doing a room at a time gradually working up into the loft.

I will be taking up the floorboards in the two bedrooms that have them and spraying the joists they sit on. Then the garage and then the loft. This time of year the grubs are already inside the wood and will emerge late spring early summer to mate. The company says it might take two treatments.

I really think this is a job you can do yourself with the right protection. ie mask, paper suit etc. The amount I needed with a sprayer cost me £100. Which is enough for a 3 bed bungalow.

Fortunately I am re-furbing so will be treating all the wood as I uncover it.

 

[JohnD]

is your house old and now dry? What makes you know you need treatment?

I ask because woodworm doesn't seem to live in modern dry houses. There must be a humidity level of timber that they need. Your exit holes might all be very old, unless you can see fresh frass.

hoover up any dust and keep an eye on them to see if you get any clean new holes and fresh frass.

There is unlikely to be any urgency in treating them, unless you live in parts of Southern England where there is a big and pernicious insect. Ordnary worm that makes a hole the size of a pencil point takes a long time to make timber useless, and the treatment includs replacement timber, not just spraying.

It would be very difficult to treat a house where the floors were covered in carpets and furniture.

they only lift about one board in 4 to get the sprayer head under.

 

[Alison556]

Thanks - would you like to send me some luck? Honestly, it's been awful - blocked drains, dodgy heating/hot water and now flippin woodworm!! It's enough to make ya wanna scream!

It's a council house that I'm in the process of buying (yes, I hear your chin hit the floor with shock) - but if this all gets sorted, it's actually a good house.

The council are the ones that got the specialist out and I've a feeling he might be making a meal of the situation because the council are paying for it.

At the suggestion of my solicitor, I'm going to get two independant surveys myself and see what they say. The foundations of the house are really deep (somewhere in the region of 12 - 15 feet) so I couldn't do it myself (too short and don't like being up big ladders!!) but if they're willing to spray underneath, like you I could paint the top side myself as and when I uncover the floors.

Interesting about treating at the time of year though - it will be very interesting to hear what they say about that - but hey, if they treat it and issue a guarantee and the little blighters come back, at least I've got the guarantee!

I had a big blow out on the phone this morning with the guy from the council about it all. According to him, I need to move out of the house for at least 3 days!!!!

 

[JohnD]

the guarantee is usually worthless because they mostly say in case of reinfestation they will come back and spray again. So if I sprayed your house with cold tea, the best you would get out of me would be some more cold tea.

See if you can get money lopped off and treat it later (but your mortgage company will have an opinion).

the chemical spray smells very strong and is presumably toxic so you won't want to be living there until it has dried out.

 

[Alison556]

Sorry JohnD, must've posted at the same time as you.

The house is old - built in 1919. Originall, I saw that the floorboards in the corner of one of the bedrooms were rotten looking and that was what I reported. I didn't actually think it was woodworm though because I've never seen any woodworm beetles about the place at all (I've had woodworm before in a previous house and used to keep find the little beetles - took the bug in a contact lens case to the council to let them see it and threatened to liberate it in their offices if they didn't fix the woodworm - but that's a whole other story).

Anyway, I knew that there had been a previous infestation of woodworm that had been treated, so I expected there would be some holes and there were a lot, but no sawdust round them. The council sent out a timber specialist surveyor and he's said that there are areas of active woodworm throughout the house. His inspection was all done from under the floors. No carpets or floorcoverings were lifted in any way for him to look at the surface of the floors.

With the depth of under our floors, would they still need to lift boards to get under?

BTW, it was two years ago that I reported the rotten boards (I actually thought it was wet rot because the boards and joist were right next to an airbrick in the outside wall) and I've not went through the floor yet! So maybe it's not active and the surveyor is just looking for work.........

 

[Alison556]

Oops, we did it again.

Yeah, I realise that about the spray. My neighbour had the little devils as well, but her company sprayed from under the floor and just said that she had to be out of the house for the day, but could return at night. Sounds much less hassle than having to move the entire house out!

What a bloomin pickle!

 

[JohnD]

The council sent out a timber specialist surveyor and he's said that there are areas of active woodworm throughout the house. His inspection was all done from under the floors.

Then I'm willing to believe him, unless you have evidence to the contrary

 

[Alison556]

Oh no! Not good news.

 

[JohnD]

I think your granny needs a week's holiday.

 

[Alison556]

Can I pray to the little woodworm God that it's not as bad as the surveyor thought and he's being overly cautious?

Think I need a holiday too...............................

 

[roughcaster]

Can I pray to the little woodworm God that it's not as bad as the surveyor thought and he's being overly cautious?

Think I need a holiday too...............................

Did you not have one at Christmas????????

 

[Alison556]

Holiday? Christmas? Ha Ha! I don't think there's a woman in the land that can put these two words in the same sentence!!

 

[anobium]

Alison if the woodworm is just in the ground floor timbers that is all you need to treat.
If it can be done from the underside then there is no need to vacate the house.
Tell them to specify a water based woodworm fluid and that way you will only have to vacate the treatment area for 24 hours.
Are you sure you basement is 12 to 15ft in height!
If by any chance the woodworm is elsewhere you only need to remove a board every 600mm or thereabouts to treat the underside of the boards and the floorjoists.

 

[Alison556]

Alison if the woodworm is just in the ground floor timbers that is all you need to treat.
If it can be done from the underside then there is no need to vacate the house.
Tell them to specify a water based woodworm fluid and that way you will only have to vacate the treatment area for 24 hours.
Are you sure you basement is 12 to 15ft in height!
If by any chance the woodworm is elsewhere you only need to remove a board every 600mm or thereabouts to treat the underside of the boards and the floorjoists.

Thanks for that - I'll speak to them.

And yeah - I've never been under the floor (don't like spiders) but the people that have been under have been amazed at how deep it is. Apparently it's not quite so deep at the front of the house (we're on a hill) but my friend's husband went down from the front of the house to lay phone cables and he had to lower the step ladder down on a rope then dangle a bit till he could find the top of them (4 foot steps and he was 6 feet). They say it's even deeper at the back of the house - that's where the guy estimated 12-15 feet, I reckon it's about 8 feet at the front and that's what I thought it was the whole way through but one of the workmen that was under said it was much deeper at the back - but there again, maybe his idea of size wasn't very accurate!!!! I know the joiner dropped his chisel down and when we shone the torch down to see where it was, it was helluva deep!!

Allegedly, I could have a complete other house down there!