On Jan 5, 8:41*am, wrote:
On 4 Jan, 14:09, RobertL wrote:





the Victorian house we recently bought, and which is empty while we
are doing it up, seems to have a lot of woodworm holes. *It's in floor
boards and joists. *The worst are some ground floor joists. *I know
that in heated hosues these infestations tend to die out but I cannot
tell whether this infestation is active or not. I plan to take
professional advice but....

I know (from *past experience) that most comanies require you to lift
floorboards every metre (and use a 1 metre spray nozzle). *I would
like to avoid lifting so many boards because of the damage. *Most of
my boards run right across from side to side so they are hard to lift
without either cutting the boards or removing the skirting boards.

Does anyone know a company which will treat an infestation (if
required) using longer (say 2m) nozzles, so I can lift fewer boards?

Many thanks,

Robert

Dear Robert
As Gerald so rightly observes the chances of your Victorian house
having active woodworm is remote. From the evidence I have
subjectively and slightly objectively (ie survey data of about 200
houses surveyed) assessed, I put the chances at between 1% and 5% at
the most. So what do *you do? Firstly may I say that at this level of
risk the cost of treatment - say £1,000 by the time you have done all
the work - is a poor investment and is best off in unit trusts or
elsewhere.
.......


Thanks for this advice. However, ideally I'd like to know now
whether the infestation is live and treat it if it is. The house is
empty, boards are lifted all over the place. By september (when
'holes in paper test' would be done) we will have moved in so it would
be much more disruptive to do what now is a simple job.

I've booked Rentokil to survey the house and advise on the infestation
and treaatment. They have a fogging system.

Robert