It never rains but...

balmaiden

Thank you very much for that informative post David. An elderly friend has been told that she has woodworm in her house and was unsure which way to proceed. Hopefully now I can be of some help.

margaretclare

EdInvestor wrote: »

How would one go about getting reputable contractors to provide second opinions on things like woodworm infestation?Certainly worth doing with the amount of money involved I'd have thought. Is there perhaps a professional association?

Did the original contractor comment on why he didn't spot the woodworm two years ago? Has it suddenly appeared?Presumably you had a survey done when you got your equity release mortgage - was anything noticed then?

There was a 'survey' done when we did the equity release mortgage - the surveyor took all of 5 minutes and he didn't go into the loft at all. He looked at the roof when walking up the road from where he'd parked his car - it was still the old asbestos tiles at that time, it was 2 years later that we had the roof completely replaced when the old tiles started to slip and could not be repaired. When the roof was done no woodworm was noticed.

seven-day-weekend

We were told we had 'inactive woodworm' in our attic room in 1976. The surveyor said not to worry about it. We didn't and still have the house 34 years later with the same floorboards.They have got no worse.

So I agree with the inspector David Aldred, sometimes it is not worth doing anything about.

Here in Spain similar damage is caused by Carpenter Bees. Our old house has over 120 exposed chestnut beams because that was the traditional way of making a house frame when our house was built. Some of them are full of holes and seeing as they are structural I was very worried . However our neighbour Miguel who is a builder scraped away the top 0.25 of a centimetre from one of the worst-looking beams and there underneath was healthy wood with no holes. He told us that the beams were fine, to relax, ('no problema, tranquillo') and needed no treatment other than spraying with diesel (:eek:) which is the local alternative to expensive insecticide in these parts. This we did and after months of putting up with the smell they have been fine ever since (six years). (Although the Carpenter Bees do visit the one particular beam on our covered terrace every year, we have to spray that one every summer!)

So again, not always anything to worry about.

Hope you get yours sorted out Margaret, just wanted to reassure, in case there is anyone who is having a panic, that it is not always necessary to do anythin, and even if you do it may be as simple as spraying with insecticide. Or diesel.:) ).

margaretclare

Have now discovered that we have £800 left over from when we had the boiler replaced by WarmFront 2 years ago - the amount was increased last April from £2700 to £3500. But we can't get any of that lovely money to help with the cost, because we haven't gone down the WarmFront route to have this job done. Apply, wait, be assessed, wait for a decision, wait for an 'approved contractor' to do the job...and they wouldn't have cleared out the whole of the loft for us, all kinds of junk that had been there for years - they'd have demanded an empty space to start with, and neither of us could have done what fit young guys were able to do.

Actually I am not too worried about it now. A week ago the whole thing was a bit of a shock but we are over it now. DH says 'it's only money, what were we saving it for anyway, what's important is that we are alive and together, money doesn't matter'. Well, I think he means it has been put to good use. He has been up in the loft and is very happy with all that's been done. We've turned the heating down several degrees and this little house is now toasty. 'Space Blanket' insulation, it's up under the roof tiles as well as between the ceiling joists on the floor of the loft. It should save us squids in fuel bills.

We probably wouldn't have been concerned about any wood-boring beetles if DH hadn't had some of them in his hand, alive! However it's all dealt with now. Back to replenishing our savings in case of any other disasters in the future! DH wasn't very convinced about why we should still save at our age - 'what are we saving FOR?' I think he understands now.

[Deleted User]

margaretclare wrote: »

Yes, I completely agree with you. As I indicated in my post, we plan holidays and we do leisure-time activities (just got a new tankini!) but we also save. DH has sometimes said 'why are we saving?' but since the shower enclosure, when I explained to him that I had to get it done for him coming out of hospital with a stiff leg, he wonders no longer.

I'm trying to contact the Energy Saving Trust who supposedly have grants for loft insulation, but so far, they're too busy to answer a call or to phone back.

try local council or warm front for these grants as well

seven-day-weekend

Glad the job is done for you Margaret, it's always a worry when these things are hanging around.

margaretclare

woodbine wrote: »

try local council or warm front for these grants as well

Errrr, no. Local council referred me straight to the Energy Saving Trust. As I explained above, I still have £800 left from the original WarmFront grant 2 years ago (amount increased in the meantime) but because we didn't go down the WarmFront route but used a private contractor, not one of theirs, can't get any of WF's money.

However, we're not too worried. We paid for it ourselves and that's it, all done and dusted. A WF contractor would not have cleared out the whole loft for us, old boxes, all kinds of stuff we no longer want, plus the old insulation etc and cleared it away from where they'd dumped it on the front lawn, all gone and tidied up now. A WF contractor would have wanted an empty space to begin with. It's all behind us now, we've read the meters and intend to keep a check on gas usage from now on. It was a very cold night and we were toasty. I'm able to sit here wearing a summer top with short sleeves. Now we'll start saving again.