Woodworm in floor and joists

[James204]

Hi, I recently purchased a 1930's house and the two upstairs bedrooms have woodworm. After reading about woodworm in another forum I decided to treat myself and lifted the floorboards up to chemically treat and install new boards.

After exposing the joists the top and bottom of a few of the joists are soft and crumbly. They are all solid in the middle so my question is do these need replacing or can I just chemically spray them and just replace boards? Thanks for any advice.



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[ree]

Are the beetles active, have you seen any live ones?
Look on your window boards for dead insects.

De-nail all your joists - one toe trip and you are through the ceiling.

You could cut away all soft and crumbling joist tops and leave the good wood in place.
Chemically spray.
You could then sister on, or splice in, some bearers to pick up the floor boards. Use screws.

Loose Lay some boards over the new work and put your weight on them to test for strength and squeaks.

The copper pipe should have a little off-cut of DPC or similar material slipped underneath the pipe at the notches.
A couple of clips would also help to prevent water hammer or squeaking expansion noises.

Brush down, sweep and vac up on completion. Dont leave frass debris.

 

[James204]

Thanks for your response. I did as you suggested and worked through to finish the job and sprayed. I didnt see any beetles in that room but the boards are chewed through into the toilet next door and bedroom the other side.

I removed the toilet pan and took out the ruined boards at the back today. There were dead beetles under the pan but none alive. Still another much bigger room to go View media item 76906

 

[ree]

You have a lead pipe supplying water or gas? If its water, then remove all lead back to wherever it first connects.
If its gas then its your call just so long as its not leaking.

In brief, all lead pipe should be removed from a property.

You also have a blackened pipe - is it copper? Or is it a redundant elec conduit?

Perhaps pic a close up of that corner including the lead to copper transition fitting?

Feel free to post pics of the floor work in the other room.
Search on here for how to lift T&G boards without splitting them.

Be cautious, or leave in place T&G boards at the doorway threshhold(s).

Mark your boards before you lift them, then you will know where to put them back.

 

[ree]

Why dont you take this open floor opportunity to fit some new double elec sockets (DSS) in the room(s), and sink in the surface mounted single socket with a DSS.

If you do the above then extend the ring, dont go spurring off.