Professional woodworm treatment or DIY

Grizebeck

We are  renovating a house and it has woodworm in the loft 
Had a quote to do the wood worm treatment @ £903 + VAT
I dont doubt there is woodworm to be treated as the surveyor stated there was active woodworm
The question is should i just pay a company to treat it or should i do it myself with the relevant liquid  - In the survey it said moderate to widespread infestation by the common furniture beetle

I guess if i am capable of using a sprayer and applying 1 ltr to 1 mtr sq, apart from a certificate to say its being treated what can a company do that i cant

Can i get the same chemicals that a firm would use, ive seen stuff @ screw fix (SIKA SIKAGARD WOODWORM)
Thoughts please?

We are capable of doing a through job, just looking for any benefits of paying them to do.  I also realise there there could be a damp issue as its a old roof but the roof is getting replaced early next year

Grizebeck

anyone?....

twopenny

I had mine professionally done although it wasn't bad and largely old we thought but it did mean I had a certificate stating when it was done, by whom and when then going for sale there was no argument.
Cover for 10yrs then. 
It was a large space with tree trunk sized beams.
I was glad I did because my buyers were picking at every little thing and wanting certificates.
So it depends on your circumstances.
Expensive but no where near that much.

Grizebeck

Thanks yes I've looked into How it's applied and decided even with no certificate we are going to do it ourselves

Mutton_Geoff

Just DIY with Cuprinol 5 Star and keep the receipts. The certificates you get with "professional treatment" are pretty worthless.

Grizebeck

Mutton_Geoff said:

Just DIY with Cuprinol 5 Star and keep the receipts. The certificates you get with "professional treatment" is pretty worthless.

my thoughts to

woodly89

Until I retired I had my own business dealing with damp, dry rot and woodworm. Lots of useful advice on Safeguard Europe site where you can also buy the treatment, they also sell on Ebay. Also try Tritonsystems.co.uk. Electric sprayers can be hired from hire shops or you can use pump sprayers.

Foxmulder2

I would definitely do it myself.  It also depends on how long you intend to stay there.  If you are intending to move during the guarantee period it might be worth getting it done professionally but I'm afraid I rarely trust anyone but myself to do a decent job. 

Screwfix sell a nice cheap sprayer (though it's only meant for water).  The Sika guard treatment is not as smelly as the stuff I used 20 years ago.

Just be careful in the loft as they tend to be pretty unpleasant places to work and wear a decent mask.

When you get your roof done go for Roofshield membrane a dry ridge and 50x25mm battens and get them to nail the tiles.  

colalba

One advantage of DIY is  that you can apply as many coats as you want to, allowing it to dry properly in between. Think info on tins recommends 2 or 3.  A company I think just attends once. What I can't answer is if that is because they use better chemicals that allow deeper penetration of the wood or not.


Definitely wear a mask up the loft.

Grizebeck

All done!
We took all the ceilings down first as replacing them. We were both black after doing that. When they replaced the roof all the bits of torching were still in the loft so so much rubbish came down
We removed and kept all the good insulation.  Removed a million redundant cables and huge wasp nests.(about 5 of them)
Sprayed on Saturday using a power sprayer.  Sprayed again on Sunday and painted it on the King post where worst bit was
And new roof being installed in 2 weeks along with loft boarding
It's really all go.....

ThisIsWeird

Taking down ceilings = surely the single worst job of any reno!
Well done. It'll all be clean and tidy up there after you have the roof replaced, so should be able to keep an eye on any WW return, tho' chances are you've zapped it.
When it comes to selling, the buyer's survey should ID 'presence of previous activity, but no signs of current'. That's all that should matter.