Woodworm

Rosy_Apple

Hello,

We are in the process of buying a house which we know needs renovation work. We have just had a damp survey (pulled up by our buildings survey) and we need to replace the DPC on half of the house and also have evidence of woodworm upstairs. I would like to go back to the seller and suggest a reduction in price to treat for the woodworm (or for them to have it treated themselves). Whilst it is a minor amount (£780) every little helps!

Do you think that is unreasonable? We knew we would have to do restoration work but some of the things that have come up are a beyond what we expected.

Many thanks,
RA

ReadingTim

If you can justify the figure of £780 then it'll help, but ultimately, what's objectively "reasonable" doesn't come into it - it's what you negotiate and agree with the vendor.

You can ask. They might agree to foot all of the bill, some of the bill, or none of the bill. What would you do if they told you to jog on?

Rosy_Apple

ReadingTim wrote: »

If you can justify the figure of £780 then it'll help, but ultimately, what's objectively "reasonable" doesn't come into it - it's what you negotiate and agree with the vendor.

You can ask. They might agree to foot all of the bill, some of the bill, or none of the bill. What would you do if they told you to jog on?

Thank you for replying (apologies for the delay in my thank you!)

The £780 is the quote we have been given for treating the woodworm. To be honest, even if they said no we would still go ahead with the purchase as we want the house. I guess it would just be helpful if they covered the cost.

Saying that, on a recent visit to the house we managed to find the area the survey referred to, it is actually in a wooden cupboard that we are having removed. So I am hoping that could be the end of the issue as they didn't find it anywhere else.

DaftyDuck

Quite common to find an isolated outbreak. Woodworm like new, fresh (and obviously untreated ) wood. Off someone goes to the DIY store, and buys some fresh (untreated) wood. After cutting some bits and thumbs to suitable lengths, and bashing some nails in random spots and knees, they now have a cupboard. Wood beetle are prevalent all over the place, so some move in, and their larvae make themselves at home. Yum yum!

"Surveyor" comes along and sees holes... Correctly diagnoses woodworm, but can't check everywhere else to ascertain if it's just there, or everywhere.

Reports matter, recommends further survey. Many people panic, and run to the phone... call for help to first internet "hit", not noticing it's an advert!

Wood treatment [STRIKE]salesman[/STRIKE] um... """"surveyor"""... ... turns up, sees woodworm in one spot, and therefore recommends whole house is sprayed, including roof timbers, understairs voids, floorboards, garden trees, and grandpa's wooden leg! Cost £££££!

You, on the other hand, can rip out this cupboard. Burn it, and have no sympathy for the cremated Anobium larvae (which are not generally considered edible, but it's summer barbecue season, and you could let us know otherwise...). Treat the floor or neighbouring wood with something like this. Keep a close eye around the house for any other infestation holes, and do a DIY treatment. Do keep a watchful eye out, however.

Which is cheaper than an odd £700.

Mind you, you might choose not to tell your vendor this.

I bought an old house with an infestation reported in the roof. Turned out surveyor had barely looked at roof timbers, but had seen it on recently-installed loft hatch surround, and reported the mass infestation as... massive! Took an hour or two to rip out the untreated timbers and replace, and problem never reoccurred.

Hedgehog99

JUst in case it's any help, I used the stuff DaftyDuck mentioned and it worked for me. Took my garden rake out one day and the 'andle fell orf in me 'and! Then I found holes in my other garden tool handles (some belonged to my grandfather, so my local subspecies didn't care about the age of the wood). Having just bought a decent new fork, I didn't want that infested, so I treated all the wooden handles with the stuff and it worked. No new holes and no visible difference to the wood finish.

Rosy_Apple

Thanks for your replies.

I will have a look into using the stuff you mentioned. I am hoping that it is an isolated case and easily dealt with.

kingstreet

Did you get an independent inspection for which you paid, or did you get a "free" report from a timber & damp contractor?

Chances are, if you did the latter you are paying for some work which may not be required - damp and/or timber.

High 'moisture' readings in walls can be down to leaky rainwater goods, slipped roof tiles, missing flashing, soil level against the wall too high and so on. It's hardly ever down to a failed damp course, yet everyone seems to get that recommendation when the inspection is done by a firm which installs damp courses.

Funny that.

Rosy_Apple

kingstreet wrote: »

Did you get an independent inspection for which you paid, or did you get a "free" report from a timber & damp contractor?

Chances are, if you did the latter you are paying for some work which may not be required - damp and/or timber.

High 'moisture' readings in walls can be down to leaky rainwater goods, slipped roof tiles, missing flashing, soil level against the wall too high and so on. It's hardly ever down to a failed damp course, yet everyone seems to get that recommendation when the inspection is done by a firm which installs damp courses.

Funny that.

Wise words! I think we might look at getting someone else out.

Thank you.

G_M

A free survey by any chance? Done by a wood treatment company?

So their salesman comes along, spots a few holes which may well be

* isolated to the yummy new cupboard as DaftDuck says, or
* 30 years old with the wooworm lng gone to finder better pastures

and scares you into a major spray-job costing ££££, which his company will happily, and unnecesarily, undertake for you.

i'm equally sceptical about dpc replacements. Yes, it may need doing, but there are far more common causes of damp, and far cheaper ones to fix.