A woodworm survey should answer four questions: is the infestation active, what species is it, how far has it spread, and what is keeping the timber damp enough to sustain it. If a survey does not answer all four, it has not finished.
Here is what ours involves, and what you should expect from anyone else's.
Before the surveyor arrives
Nothing is required of you, but two things help.
Clear access to the affected timber. That usually means a loft hatch that opens, and furniture moved off the area of floor in question. A surveyor who cannot reach the timber cannot assess it.
Note what you have seen and when. Beetles on the windowsill in June, fresh dust in the airing cupboard, a floorboard that felt spongy underfoot. Small observations narrow things down considerably.
What happens during the survey
Getting to the timber
This is the part people are least prepared for. Assessing woodworm properly means seeing the structural timber, not the surface of a floorboard. In practice that means lifting floorboards and getting into roof voids and under-floor spaces.
A survey conducted from the middle of the room, looking at holes in a skirting board, is a guess. We would rather lift three boards and know.
Establishing whether it is active
The surveyor is looking for the signs covered in our guide on telling active woodworm from old damage — fresh, pale-edged exit holes, loose powdery frass, live or dead beetles in season. They will also probe the timber to judge how much strength has been lost.
Identifying the species
This matters more than people expect, because it changes the seriousness. Common furniture beetle is by far the most frequent find in Northern Irish property and is manageable. House longhorn beetle is a different proposition structurally. Death watch beetle tends to turn up in old hardwood in historic buildings and often signals a long-standing damp problem.
You cannot treat what you have not identified.
Finding the moisture
This is the step that separates a survey from a sales visit. Wood boring beetles need timber above a certain moisture content. Dry timber does not sustain most infestations. So an active infestation means something is keeping that wood damp.
The surveyor will use moisture meters and check the obvious suspects: blocked airbricks and dead ventilation under a suspended floor, a failed or bridged damp proof course, plumbing leaks, and condensation in an unventilated roof space.
Treat the beetles and ignore the moisture, and you will be doing this again. This is the most common reason woodworm returns after treatment.
Checking for what else is going on
Damp timber attracts more than beetles. If conditions have been right for woodworm they may well be right for wet or dry rot too, so the surveyor will look for both while the floor is up.
What the report should tell you
You should receive a written report. Verbal reassurance and a price is not a survey. Ours sets out:
Whether the infestation is active, and what that judgement is based on
The species identified
Which timbers are affected, and how badly
The cause — what is keeping the timber damp
What needs doing, in order, including any repairs as well as treatment
What it will cost
If any of those are missing, ask. Particularly the cause: a report that specifies treatment without explaining why the timber was damp has skipped the part that determines whether the treatment lasts.
Questions worth asking
Is the infestation actually active? If the answer is vague, press on it. Historic woodworm needs nothing.
What is keeping the timber damp, and is that in the quote? Treatment without ventilation or damp work may be treating a symptom.
Does any timber need replacing, or can it be retained? Sound timber with old holes usually does not need ripping out.
Is the work guaranteed, and by whom? We are Property Care Association members, which means working to a specification with a guarantee as standard, and TrustMark registered.
What is used, and how disruptive is it? Ours is a low-odour, water-based, non-flammable microemulsion, so the property generally stays usable.
What you get
You receive the written report and an estimate, and you decide what happens next.
The diagnosis is genuinely the valuable part. A fair number of the properties we look at turn out not to need treatment at all — old, dormant damage that has been there for decades — and we would rather tell you that than sell you work you do not need.
Book a survey
We have surveyed and treated timber across Northern Ireland since 1967 — more than 40,000 contracts, from Belfast terraces to historic churches. To arrange a survey, use the form on our woodworm treatment page or ring 028 9061 8343.