Surveyor missed woodworm.. Image attached

[selck]

The render has come away from the wooden plinth at the bottom of concrete walls exposing rotten wood and a woodworm infestation. Anyone experienced anything like this? Who would even know where to start with this? No idea how much this will cost. Price agreed at £255,000 but now feels like a money pit.

Could it be a previous woodworm infestation? Just because there are holes there, doesn’t mean that the infestation is still active, or that it’s caused structural issues.

If you’ve had a second opinion confirming that there IS an active infestation, you surely need to take this up with the surveyor in a legal dispute, if it’s a done and dusted deal? But has the house sale actually gone through at this stage? (Unclear from your post.) If not, it’s potentially and opportunity for a lot of haggling or backing out.

I'd have an independent damp/timber survey, and fingers crossed for you it is all dead. Unfortunately surveyors can't lift carpets - I found wet/dry rot and live woodworm here. Seller had employed a cowboy company that attached a repair to a woodwormed joist.

What on Earth is a great big piece of rotting timber doing there? It doesn't look like something I'd expect to find in a British house of what mortgage providers and insurers like to call "standard construction"....

The property is a 1960s concrete prefab. Offer accepted but nothing exchanged yet.

Had a level 3 building survey, it comes back talking about "squeaky floorboards" when the floors and walls are all concrete. I don't know what the surveyor was thinking when he wrote the report.

Who can tell me if it's still active? What kind of trade is equipped to give me information and quotes for repairs? I'm FTB so I feel in over my head with this house.

Woodworm is easily treated with spray treatment. The more serious issue from that photo is that the wood appears to be rotting and the house is sitting on it so it’s not easy to replace like a floor joist or roof truss.
Traditionally on the uk they do stick wood into brick and stone work for various reasons. One house we had and renovated wood was walled into the stonework so there was something to attach the lath and plaster to. The wood obviously rotted and had to be carefully removed and the gaps filled with slate because it doesn’t compress and therefore is structurally stable.

I presume that wood would be replaced in the same way. Take about a foot out and then pack with slate and mortar and wait for it to go off and then do the next door until the whole house was done. DPCs are often replaced in the same way.

I would either back out or want a hefty discount.

You need to get an independent damp/timber surveyor to have a look - especially if the floorboards are squeaky.

Are you the OP? If you haven’t exchanged contracts (and you still want to go ahead), you have the opportunity to do a lot of haggling.

Apparently active wood worm can potentially be heard and there are signs of chewed wood. You need a proper survey - a quick Google shows that Rentakil do surveys, for example.

The house is concrete pre-fab? Have you checked that this is ok with your mortgage provider (if you need a mortgage, that is)?

Okay I will look at Rentokil, thank you. The surveyor who went out just didn't do a good job.

We have not exchanged, I'm not sure if it's worth the money that it needs going into it. It needs a lot of work, new bathroom and kitchen, complete redecoration throughout.

Mortgage provider completely happy with concrete and would have lent on it without a survey. Valuation came back fine. Everything was ready to go and I was just waiting for the survey to come through as a precaution.

I have no idea what that piece of wood is for ? Yes it looks rotten. But if I had to have a guess it looks like a batten they have put on to render down to ? Maybe to get a straight line at the bottom ? And never removed it after ?

poke it with a screwdriver to see if it’s brick behind it.

It is a concrete prefab so no brick behind. It's part of the plinth so I suppose it's holding up the wall? As far as I know, it goes all the way along.

Poke it with a screwdriver and see if there’s concrete behind it 😀.

I’ve never seen a house built on a wooden plinth ? ( not unless it’s a timber framed house). My money is still on it’s a batten of some sort ?

I will investigate your theory — thank you !

It is a while since I bought a property, but I am pretty sure that surveyors are NOT responsible with regards to finding possible problems that are hidden behind walls etc. How on earth would they/should they know what is/was going on behind render?

Its highly possible that those are historic holes and nothing is active.

Now that the render has exposed the wood, you have the perfect opportunity to see whether the plinth is integral to the structure of the house. Am pretty sure it isn’t, but it’s worth double-checking.

The surveyor said this was damaged and took a photo. He had numerous inconsistencies on the report such as talking about double doors (there are no double doors), he took his damp reading from a partition in the living room instead of a wall and claiming the suspended timber frame was squeaking (floors are all concrete).

I am frustrated that he took a picture of the wood and did not mention the rot or woodworm, yes. It was exposed at the time of the survey.

He put in his report that the house is worth £250,000 but I just don't know where he's got that figure from or where he came up with his estimates for the work to be done. (£600 to replace the living room door, £4500 to remove polystyrene tiles from the ceiling)