MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
At the weekend I discovered some woodworm at my mum's 60's (wood-frame!) bungalow. 2 4x1's that come down from the garage roof to hold up the garage door have soom woodworm in them (not much), but seem solid. There are a tiny number of holes in some woodwork in the roof-space they attach to.
I guess it needs inspected/treated etc by a professional...any pointers (in NI) - my mum is 81 and liable to get ripped off.
Professional nahhhhhh. As some of you may know I moonlight as a landlord and have been dealing with stuff like this in my houses and the houses I look after for years. Best thing for woodworm is boron. You can eat it, but woodworm/dryrot and loads of other nasties don't like it. Buy a big bag of powder and a garden spray, flood the wood with it. Forget about woodworm.
These guys are based down my way [url= http://www.boron.org.uk/ ]born timber treatment in devon[/url] and will sell you some white powder..
You might want to check that the damage hasn't weakened anything but from the sounds of what you say its fine.
Treated my own...can't see how you need to be a professional to slap a bit of treatment on unless you have loads to do! Keep an eye on it to check you've solved it.
Cheers guys thanks - is there a proprietry treatment you would recommend?
only last weekend I treated all the timbers in the barn Im converting using http://www.agwoodcare.co.uk/gbu0-prodshow/fastrack_dual.html
it dilutes 25:1 and that tub will do 100 sq m...so thats probably a bit much for your mums garage, but you could treat all the loft timbers as well for throughness.
I bought a 20l back pack sprayer from northern tools for £20. You could also use a 1 or 2L handheld garden sprayer but ti would take a bit more effort.
I maintain a bothy riddled with the stuff. The self treatment advice is good, but I offer two other bits of advice. First, remove and replace the worst affected wood. Second, apply the treatment with a spray gun (I use a pressurised container and sprayer designed for creosote), as it's about £40 for 5 litres for treatment, and spraying makes it go further than brushing on. Plus you get into nooks and crannies easier.
One container does about 10m^3. Buy a facemask/gloves etc.
Whatever you do, don't pay someone!
Al - go for the boron in my link above, its got low toxicity to humans and the environment, the others are a bit yuccky..
There is a fair bit of evidence that a dose of boron every now and again is good for you.
There's 4 4x1's with holes all the way along (not densely though) and a few spars in the roof space with only a few holes each - I am thinking paintbrush.
Yup or a handheld 99p garden sprayer, is what I have used in the past.