What does woodworm or timber decay mean in a survey?

What is the surveyor actually reporting in the timber?

Woodworm is the everyday name for damage by wood-boring insects. The surveyor is usually reporting holes, crumbling edges, or timber that has lost its strength, in a place they could see: a loft, a cellar, an understairs void, or the edge of a board. Fungal decay is a different process. The Property Care Association treats both as problems that follow damp, not as labels you can price from the word alone. A home survey in England or Wales should say where the timber was, what it looked like, and whether the surveyor thinks the damage is current.

When are flight holes not an active infestation?

Insects leave holes when they emerge. Those holes remain after the insects have gone. Old holes in timber that is now dry are not, by themselves, an active infestation. A surveyor who can see the timber may say the attack looks historic, or may say they cannot tell. Both sentences are useful. A sentence that only says woodworm, with no view on whether it is current, is not yet a specification for treatment.

Activity is a separate question from the existence of holes. The surveyor can only judge it where the timber was visible on the day. One visit does not watch a life cycle. If floorboards, fitted coverings or stored goods hid the joists, the honest finding is that those joists were not seen. Do not let a contractor turn historic holes in a dry loft into a whole-house treatment without saying what is active, and where.

Why does moisture matter to both insects and rot?

Wood-boring insect damage and fungal decay both need persistent moisture, or a history of it. The Property Care Association’s structural advice to homeowners puts damp, rot and woodworm in the same family of problems for that reason. Wet timber is the condition that lets decay start. Timber that was wet, and is now dry, can show old damage that does not need the same response as an ongoing leak.

Find the water before you buy a spray. A leaking roof, a wet cellar, a bridged wall or a plumbing leak is the defect. Treating the holes and leaving the leak repeats the damage. Fungal decay, including the wet rot and dry rot discussed in the Property Care Association’s fungal guidance, is a different organism from an insect. A spray sold for woodworm does not answer rot, and a rot treatment does not answer an insect that is still in damp wood. The survey should keep those findings apart.

What should you ask before you pay for timber treatment?

RICS Level 1 does not lift carpets, floor coverings or floorboards, and it does not move furniture. Higher levels still do not open up floors as standard. Ask what was actually seen. A treatment quote that assumes every concealed joist is infested is a guess.

• Which timbers did you see, and which were covered?
• Do you think any insect damage is active, historic, or impossible to judge?
• Is there fungal decay as well, or only holes?
• Where is the moisture coming from, and has it stopped?
• What opening-up do you want before exchange, if the floors could not be seen?

Common questions