Moth infestation due to builder’s choice of material - any recourse?

[Fleura]

We moved into a new build a year ago and have been dealing with an ongoing moth infestation. Baffling because it’s a completely new house, no carpets, hard floors, all new furniture. We’ve spent hundreds if not thousands now on rounds of fogging and had our brand new curtains heat treated and removed from the house for a month to see if they were the cause. They weren’t.

We’ve now identified that the infestation is coming from the wool lagging that the builders used around our pipes. In some instances it’s almost been completely eaten away. The moths were likely introduced by pigeons that nested in the house while it was being built - the builders didn’t bother to clean up their mess and debris and decided to lay the insulation over and around it all 🤬

Our problem now is that to completely eradicate the problem we face ripping out all of the wool lagging in the house which is ultimately behind our walls and under our floors. Or we just resign ourselves to fogging the house every two weeks which in itself is going to run into the tens of thousands.

I’ve had words like severe negligence and health and safety issues bandied around by one pest expert who’s also told me it is extremely surprising that wool lagging and not foam was used. My OH seems to think wool lagging is standard practice.

I’d like to get some legal advice but not sure if trying to claim anything back from either the builder or the manufacturer would be fruitless?

I would involve the NHBC as home will be under warranty still , sorry no legal
knowledge but hope you get it resolved

I think you'd need hard facts not assumptions. You say 'we've identified', you'd need expert confirmation of that. And unless you were watching the builders on a daily basis where has the information come from about how they laid the insulation? You'd need to think about what hard evidence you've got.

Polyethylene foam is common, or felt. You'd need to get some experts to say it was done badly and the court might expect you to have agreed with the defendant what experts would be used. Start with the NHBC.

My friend had to have the roof taken off his house to replace wool insulation.

He had done the same as you, fumigating etc, and by the time it was identified much of the insulation was eaten away and the debris from dead moths and larvae was horrific. As his house was an opened up loft (iyswim) it was easier and less messy to take the roof off rather than all the inside ceilings and plastering.

It was the use of wool per se that had caused the issue, not messy workmanship.

Hopefully your new build warranty will cover this. Would your insurance company address it with them?

Thanks - wrong choice of wording on my part, we have a report from an expert with evidence to support where the infestation has come from and also photos of the insulation which has been laid on top of and around pigeon mess and droppings. One of us was pretty much on site every day through the build and so we know exactly where pigeons were nesting and where we’d been told it would be cleared up.

That’s interesting thanks. The good news is that we are still within guarantee with the builders so they have now agreed to come and remove as much of the lagging as is initially accessible - luckily we have cavity hatches in almost every room - and replace it with foam. We’re also going to trial sealing up all the air conditioning vents too to stop them coming in. Let’s see what happens 🤞🤞🤞🤞It will be an opportunity to question the plumber as to why he’s opted for that particular material when it does seem to be problematic!

I’ve resigned myself to the fact that we may have to move out over the summer if it persists and they have to start ripping into walls. Fortunately we shouldn’t have to go into the floors as they are completely sealed up so nothing could get through.

You might want to look at the news today… court has made a seller repay the whole cost of a house etc due to an undisclosed moth infestation.