Ceiling beams - woodboring insect infestation

[Philip_I]

Just had survey back on house I am planning to buy and mention that woodbroing insect infestation "is affecting" the structual ceiling beams. The house is orginally a 17th century farmhouse but chunks of it were rebuilt in the 1970s using orignal beams. Supposedly they were treated at that time and there is no sign of any dampness in the house. I am trying to speak to the surveyor to get some colour on the problem and hopefully just signs of infestation in the past but would appreciate some views on the worst case scenario. Would this just involve chemical treatment of the beams with associated upheaval? Is there any chance of beams actually needing to be replaced? Wondering how much fuss I should make about this before purchase and whether or not to get a further specialist survey.

 

[Matt Green]

Could be anything. Need pictures or a useful description form the surveyor (...).

Has the surveyor just seen a few flight holes and decided to bulk out their report? Best case scenario: nothing wrong. Worst case, fix whatever leak is causiung the attack and support the affected timbers. If there is any severe damage it will be within the walls, not unformly spread- support for the bearings is a much more likely case than replacement.

Really though, there 's too little information to make much of.

 

[Cloudscape]

Quite a lot of my internal timbers have been well-and truly attacked. I imagined the surveyor would expect a specialist to be called in. Nothing of the sort. He tested the wood for moisture content and reported that it was too low to support wood-boring insects, and that the damage was mainly superficial. I've seen no signs so far of recent activity.

There's a big difference between "is affecting" and "has affected", although "affected" could be construed as meaning "adversely affected". If the surveyor was only noting the presence of flightholes of unspecified age, with no opinion on structural integrity, then "is affecting" was a bit casual.

He's opened up a can of (wood) worms. (Sorry!)