Woodworm

[Deleted User]

Hi all,

I am going to view a house today and my concern is the home report states: There is evidence of woodworm to the roof timbers within the roof void. Details should be confirmed in relation to past treatments/guarantees.

Obviously it's difficult to say how much this would cost without seeing the place but I wondered, more generally, if this is a big problem or something to be concerned about/ unfixable? The house is very reasonably priced but less so if this could cost thousands of pounds. Any help would be appreciated as I have no understanding of these things!

stuart45

Most older houses will have the flight holes in their timber somewhere in the house. As long as they are old ones there is no problem. If there was a serious amount of frass in places, then it would need looking at properly.

Falafels

Obviously it depends on whether it's a recent infestation or a historic one, and how severe it is. There is an apocryphal story about a surveyor who returned a report which stated: "I do not understand how this building is still standing. The woodworm must be holding hands."

A few ancient flight holes are nothing to worry about, especially if the roof void has been sprayed in the past. If there's evidence of recent dust in holes, though, that may indicate that the infestation's still active. If the infestation's really bad, the beams etc may already be severely weakened.

Further inspection's needed to see how bad the problem is, but it isn't necessarily particularly costly to sort it.

[Deleted User]

Thank you Stuart! Apologies for my ignorance, but what is frass, and how would I be able to tell there is a lot of it?

FreeBear

Falafels said: A few ancient flight holes are nothing to worry about, especially if the roof void has been sprayed in the past.

Spraying chemicals will kill any beetles that emerge around the time of treatment, but it will do little to kill any active woodworm under the surface. The chemicals will penetrate in to the timber a few millimetres at best and won't kill the grubs chomping away at the core.

Woodworm will only attack damp timber, so as long as the moisture content is below 20%, there should be no risk of an active infestation. Check the moisture content (this is where a moisture meter can be used effectively), and look for evidence of frass (a fine wood dust).

Melei

Our house has woodworm evidence which came up on our survey 15 years ago. Since that time there has been no further activity as far as we know but, as we knew it would come up on the survey now that we are selling, we have had it treated so we have the paperwork to hand. For a 3 bed semi it was £450 & VAT.

stuart45

Deleted_User said:

Thank you Stuart! Apologies for my ignorance, but what is frass, and how would I be able to tell there is a lot of it?

It's when the beetle eats it's way out and leaves some wood like dust around the holes and the surface below. I've just found some on a beam above the cooker.cooker

 

Pok3mon

stuart45 said:

Deleted_User said:

Thank you Stuart! Apologies for my ignorance, but what is frass, and how would I be able to tell there is a lot of it?

It's when the beetle eats it's way out and leaves some wood like dust around the holes and the surface below. I've just found some on a beam above the cooker.cooker

 

That's woodworm! The powder is call frass.

stuart45

Pok3mon said:

stuart45 said:

Deleted_User said:

Thank you Stuart! Apologies for my ignorance, but what is frass, and how would I be able to tell there is a lot of it?

It's when the beetle eats it's way out and leaves some wood like dust around the holes and the surface below. I've just found some on a beam above the cooker.cooker

 

That's woodworm! The powder is call frass.

I know the beetle is called woodworm, and the frass is it's droppings. What did you think I meant?
They are fresh holes.