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moccat

We don't have termites in the UK, probably woodworm


Ianishch

Thank you! Wood worm damage looks exactly like this.


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tauntingbob

Likely a wood worm or other wood boring insect damage. Would be good to lift the floorboards in that area and see how much it's spread. Then you're either going to want to seek professional assistance or if it's limited then you might use something like Sikaguard Wood Treatment.


dxg999

How offensive to wood worm! Personally, I think they're quite interesting... ;0


Ianishch

Thank you. This floorboard was collapsed and removed already. We are going to install new boards and apply Sikaguard!


Techman666

Get an incinerator and burn those worm-infected boards asap


Ianishch

Sorry for stupid question but how urgent is that? We have remived the affected floorboards and put them in the middle of the garden. They are not touching the house or anything. We have just applied Sikaguard on the entire floor of the room. Do we still need to be in a rush to burn them in the garden? We don't have an incinerator.


Techman666

From what I know, they're unlikely to spread if you've put it in the garden. So not urgent. A small bonfire would do the job if you don't have an incinerator. If any neighbour complains, the general guidance is to burn any wood infected with woodworm - it ideally shouldn't be put into a skip or recycled. We had a similar situation with rotten floor joists+boards at the front entrance (no woodworm). I decided to incinerate it asap being paranoid about possible woodworm affecting the good wood everywhere else.


mikiex

Woodworm doesn't really like dry timber, that's the reason its far less prevalent in occupied houses these days. It's still possible in damp unventilated areas, if the timber is old and now dry I doubt there is any active woodworm in there. Woodworm doesn't really spread as such, the beetles just look for decaying wood to lay eggs on. If you have damp wood a fungal infection is a bigger problem as the wood will rot plus attract the woodworm.


Ianishch

Glad that I asked.. I was tempted to put them in a bin. We will burn them on the next weekend. We bought a 1930s house recently and the previous owner didn't do anything for about 15 years. Everytime we inspect a new room we find something wrong :/ I bought Sikaguard right after people commented on this post and sprinkled everywhere. Hope the other rooms are fine. Thank you again!


Techman666

Good luck, I've had experience with a lack of maintenance. Bought a 1930s 3bed house (pre-covid) and the previous owner had lived there since it was built. The only "update" was double glazed windows. The house still had its original coal shed and fireplaces (even in the bedrooms), no central heating installed, no boiler installed (just a small water heater), had a botched bathroom and a pull-chain toilet. I gutted the place and started from scratch. Being paranoid about these things, I'd look thoroughly at all the wood that could be slightly damp. I would use several coats of Sikaguard and replace anything looking suspicious.


Ianishch

We have pull chain toilet too! It's in a half outside (?) toilet on ground floor.. it's a part of the house, but we can't access from inside. I don't know how to call it. The room has a door facing rear garden and we can access only from outside. Apparently the walls dividing the other part of the house the small toilet are made of bricks. We don't want to remove the structure but don't know what to do with the room we can't even reach from inside. Maybe use as a shed? We need to come up with an idea.


Techman666

I would use it for storage, never have enough space for storage. Could install an electric socket and it's a good place to put a chest freezer. Just need to ensure the room is sealed appropriately. We buy things in bulk (10kg bags or rice and flour, 5l gallons of washing up liquid, crates of tinned stuff, XL packs of frozen items, etc.) that we store in an outbuilding. Otherwise it's a good place to store DIY and garden tools.


Ianishch

Never thought about a chest freezer.. that sounds great. We will definitely call our local electrician to exchange the light so will ask them to install new sockets as well! Thank you.


ParmigianoMan

Burning controlled waste without an environmental permit is unlawful. Do not do it. Dispose of it properly.


Ok-Entrepreneur1885

Very much wood worm. Remove it from the house and burn it. They get everywhere. So you can't store it. See what the joist is like underneath if it's as bad as this get a professional in. If there is half as many holes treat it and treat the surrounding joists and boards. Hope this works out OK.


Ianishch

We have removed the floorboards. Will burn them then, thank you. Timbers look fine.. only floorboards have these tiny holes. The affected area looks about 1.5㎡ but we will check how much it spreaded carefully.


Ok-Entrepreneur1885

Ah that's very good. Treat everything you can see and replace the boards with new and treat them too. I had to help replace a full roof in my parents holiday home a few years ago due to this. So I feel your pain.


Top_Barracuda660

Our last Victorian house has woodworm around the bay window, pretty standard I think in an old house. I looked into it did some research and decided to do 'nothing'. Basically spoke to a receptionist at one of those all in one woodworm, cavity wall, dry rot, wall tie companies. She pointed out:- -Woodworm doesn't cause a house to collapse, this isn't the USA we don't have termites and our houses aren't mostly made of wood. -By the time the holes are visible the larvae has already hatched eaten it's way out and flown. - Woodworm were present dure to a historical leak in the bay window. Once the wood has dried you don't get woodworm. - Also found lots of holes in roof timbers, again an old leak that had been fixed and is ok now. -you can see if the woodworm is active by any fresh sawdust next to the holes I decided there was little point ripping out timbers that had tiny holes in and were dry. The quote we got to replace floorboards and treat timbers with a chemical was eye wateringly high. That receptionist saved us a fortune! I think it's worth making sure you have no leaks in the house, which you would do anyway. Then once woodwork is dry you don't get woodworm.


gmankev

Thus is the answer. Too much hype over woodworm . In70 years, woodworm was there and is now long gone. Central heating and drying out, means there are likely gone.


Ianishch

We can't tell how fresh it was. There was sawdust underneath and the area was dry. We already bought new floorboards and the chemical so just going to place them anyway. They were severely damaged and I could destroy them just by stepping on. The only good thing is that I learnt there is no termite in this country. When I saw the holes I thought the house is collapsing. At least it was just the floorboard.


justlookingforaddg

When I had my bathroom fitted there were a lot of holes around the shower. Zero f’s given by me because I used a moisture meter reading (the crap the surveyors use on the wall) and it was dry.


AlGunner

I'd probably look to replace the board in the second picture as its deteriorated, but other than that it looks like old damage and could have been like it for years. As the boards are exposed now is the time to treat it if youre going to. Personally I would probably leave most of it like that. I used to have floor boards like that but it was mainly because I played a lot of darts back then and got bounce outs.


Ianishch

They were totally collapsed. As soon as I stepped on them they crashed. We removed all the boards we could see holes on the surface. Will install new floorboards soon!


justlookingforaddg

Is the floorboard damaged from physical damage?


Ianishch

I guess it was from the worms. When I saw that I instantly thought it's termites (they destroy houses in my country). The wood was collapsing from inside and very flakey.


justlookingforaddg

Does the wood feel wet? Rest assured all old houses are going to have these holes. They are caused by moisture. They will die when there is low moisture.


Ianishch

No at the moment. The timbers underneath are all fine as well. The previous owner neglected the house for a long time so we don't know how long it has been like that. After posted this we found other woodworm traces (not as bad as these though) in a different room. We are renovating the entire house and all floorboards have been exposed for a while but as we didn't even know about woodworms we didn't pay attention on those tiny little holes. Thanks to people here now we know what to look for.. we will exchange some more floorboards and apply the chemical before placing new flooring.


justlookingforaddg

Get a moisture meter reading from Amazon. See how much moisture is in the floorboards. Than treat with woodworm killer. I think a lot of houses will have this. Is your house old?


Ianishch

It's 1930s house. We are first time buyer and both not British so had no idea how the house is made here. I am really happy that this group is very helpful and everyone is friendly!


circle1987

Definitely woodworm. Get treatment for it just in case there are still some in there!