Old roof woodworm

[Ashly90]

Hi all,
We’re renovating a room in our house. The ceiling was sagging and loose in places so had a look in the loft. Found they had vaulted the ceiling and at some point covered it back over. We’re re vaulting it but have now seen there is woodworm on the large “ a frame timbers “ . Not sure of the correct term for them. We will be treating them but not sure if this is something to worry about? I’ve attached some photos. They are roughly 180mm x 80mm. Thanks in advance for any help

 

[Toby Newell]

Hi all,
We’re renovating a room in our house. The ceiling was sagging and loose in places so had a look in the loft. Found they had vaulted the ceiling and at some point covered it back over. We’re re vaulting it but have now seen there is woodworm on the large “ a frame timbers “ . Not sure of the correct term for them. We will be treating them but not sure if this is something to worry about? I’ve attached some photos. They are roughly 180mm x 80mm. Thanks in advance for any help

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Looks a bit friable but hard to see, can you annotate the main photo to show where the detail is from? Also take a slightly longer shot of the worm holes plus let us know what members have been attacked. The detail looksclose up, so small holes look like common furniture beetle to me, with maybe one or two post beetle but no death watch. Really give the timbers a good poke, buy a tungsten carbide 50mm scraper and give them a really hard (be careful v sharp!) two handed scrape at the edges. Try and hack off as much as you can, usually its only the outer softer sapwood that gets attacked, the heartwood normally has enough strength left to bear the load. If the timber is friable all the way to the middle, you have an issue.

Worm like damp timber, solve the damp issue and they will go away. Prevention is better than cure. Normal treatment is Permethrin, I mean it's in the loft so fumes should dissipate mostly out of the house but I don't like using it. It's a class 2A carcinogen, highly toxic to pets and lethal to bees. It is illegal to use in agriculture in the EU and totally banned in Canada. Only use it if you have to, use gloves and wash your hands. Yes, I know 5% topical creams are used to treat lice but its not great stuff at 100% to have splashed all over places pets or bees can find it.

Paging Mr Matt Green... (he is the Producer back at the studio... - damp and pest expert. - I am simply a roving reporter (wood conservator and restorer))

 

[Kearn]

Don’t treat, it’s pointless and introducing nasty chemicals into your living space plus will kill all the useful bugs. It won’t deal with an active infestation of worm anyway. You say it’s old, confirm that first - if so, then as long as the timber is structurally sound, There’s nothing to deal with. If it’s live, then you need to deal with the moisture content in the wood and environment. Beetle cannot survive in dry environments….

 

[Ashly90]

I don’t know if it’s old or still live. The bits missing from the beam is where I’ve caught it removing the timber they’d attached to suspend the never ceiling. The woodworm is on the larger beams and I’ve marked it on the photo below. It only seems to be mostly on the timber that wasn’t in the roof space. I’ve poked down into it and the deepest part is as shown in photo 3 above which is 15mm roughly. Hope this info helps.

 

[Toby Newell]

I don’t know if it’s old or still live. The bits missing from the beam is where I’ve caught it removing the timber they’d attached to suspend the never ceiling. The woodworm is on the larger beams and I’ve marked it on the photo below. It only seems to be mostly on the timber that wasn’t in the roof space. I’ve poked down into it and the deepest part is as shown in photo 3 above which is 15mm roughly. Hope this info helps.

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15mm seems ok, treat it if you want but there is no need if it isnt damp anymore.

Permethrin works via contact, so unless you use a hyperdermic needle to squirt into every gallery you are only killing bettles that settle or flyers that emerge every two or three years, any live colonies will keep on munching merrily inside your rafters for years blissfully unaware of your exterior poisoning efforts.

I would look at reducing the moisture levels in the roof space first.