On 7 Jan, 13:01, Invisible Man wrote:
Stuart Noble wrote:
Invisible Man wrote:
Invisible Man wrote:
RobertL wrote:
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

Robert
I would be very interested to hear what Rentokil have to say. My
tissue paper has been on nearly a year and I have not checked it yet.
Problem is that eggs or whatever lie in the wood for up to 3 years
and emerge between May and October. As I understand it this makes it
very difficult to tell whether an infestation is still active.
We need to gut the kitchen and replace it from floor to ceiling
inclusive asap so the sooner we can exclude the possibility or
further damage or get it dealt with the better.

Rentokil are coming out tomorrow.
Anyone know any good companies that operate in mid-Essex that I could
get a competitive opinion on my woodworm from?

AFAIK woodworm need damp wood, which is why live infestations are
unusual these days

Rentokil been out today.
Reckon the fresh stuff in some holes means the little bu**ers are still
boring heir way out.


Did you expect them to say "it doesn't need doing, and we don't want
your money"?



Regards
Richard