Woodworm or Common Furniture Beetle

I had almost finished inspecting the roof structure of a bungalow recently when I thought I would just a last look around in part of the roof into which I had to crawl across the joists. Not easy as you get older and have gained a few pounds around the middle.

A lucky find perhaps because the only visible evidence was this one small piece of timber. It’s fairly unusual to find live woodworm in a modern property. This bungalow was built c 1950 and was habitable. The roof void was well insulated, dry and in good condition apart from these small holes and the tell tale sawdust. Most live woodworm is found in warm damp locations so finding it in a dry cool roof void is not so commonplace.

A salutary lesson maybe to Surveyors and less experienced Home Inspectors to check and check again because had my clients found after they had bought the property I could easily have been asked to answer a few interesting questions.