Woodworm treatment cost: what the job involves and who is registered to do it

the UK roofing register

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How damp and timber works

1. Get the timber looked at before anything is quoted. Old flight holes look exactly like new ones to an owner and quite different to a surveyor, who is reading the edges of the hole, the colour of the bore dust and whether there are frass trails on the surface below. A quote written without that reading is a quote for a treatment nobody has established is needed.
2. Separate the beetle from the moisture that fed it. Common furniture beetle needs damp timber to get established, so an active infestation is usually a symptom of a leak, a blocked underfloor vent or a failed damp course. Treating the timber and leaving the water is how the same loft is treated twice, and a specialist who does not ask where the moisture came from has answered half the question.
3. Price the access, not just the spray. Most of the labour in a timber treatment is getting to the wood: lifting floorboards, clearing a loft, moving insulation and putting it all back. Ask for the access and the reinstatement to be priced as their own lines, because that is where two quotes for the same house diverge most.
4. Read the guarantee and who stands behind it. A long guarantee from a firm that may not outlast it is worth less than a shorter one backed by an insurance-backed scheme, and the difference is not visible on the front of the certificate. Ask who underwrites it, what it excludes, and whether it survives a sale of the house.
5. Get more than one reading of the same timber. Diagnosis in this trade is genuinely contested and two competent surveyors can disagree about whether an infestation is active. A second opinion is cheap next to a floor lifted for nothing, and any firm that objects to one is telling you something useful.

Insurance and paperwork

Common questions

How do I know whether the woodworm is still active?

Fresh holes have sharp, pale edges and there is usually clean bore dust under them that reappears after you sweep it away. Old holes are darkened and the dust does not come back. Emergence is seasonal, so a survey in late spring or summer sees more evidence than one in January.

Does woodworm treatment need building regulations approval?

Treating timber does not, in itself. Replacing structural timber does, because that is work to the structure, and the same is true of taking out a wall plate or a joist that has rotted. If the job moves from treating wood to replacing it, ask who is notifying building control.

Is a damp specialist the same trade as a woodworm specialist?

In Britain they are usually the same firm, because the two problems arrive together: timber decay follows moisture. That is why a competent survey covers both, and why a quote for one that never mentions the other is worth questioning.

Registered contractors by region

• Registered roofers in the East Midlands postcode area
• Registered roofers in the East of England postcode area
• Registered roofers in the London postcode area
• Registered roofers in the North East postcode area
• Registered roofers in the North West postcode area
• Registered roofers in the Scotland postcode area
• Registered roofers in the South East postcode area
• Registered roofers in the South West postcode area
• Registered roofers in the Wales postcode area
• Registered roofers in the West Midlands postcode area
• Registered roofers in the Yorkshire and The Humber postcode area