Advice on woodworm and mould in loft timber

[FTM47]

We are in the final stages of buying a house and we’ve found out there is some active woodworm in the loft timber as well as some mould/condensation due to poor ventilation.
It’s a 3 bed 1930 house.

The quote to repair has come back at £12,500k inc VAT in East of England.

This was to treat the woodworm with a fungicide treatment but also …

• Removing existing insulation
• Removing boarding
• Clearing loft contents
• Installing 10 roof vents
• New insulation system (300mm total)
• Installing Airdeck boarding system
• Labour, waste removal, supervision

I am told the bulk of this cost goes on labour, skips and scaffolding. It all sounds very scary.
The sellers are refusing to acknowledge or support any of the repairs.

Looking for any advice please!
Is this a big job? Does the cost sound correct? Or is there another less costly way to go about this?
Being told this is a full loft upgrade which is a nice to do but not essential whilst others say you don’t mess with the loft do the full upgrade.

Thank you

That's insane !!!
I think that's be inflated because your buying !!
Get your own damp specialist in to have a look it's needs spraying and probs need a PIV unit it won't cost all that ! That will cure mold and woodworm I don't think anything needs ripping out lol 😆

WTAF!!

We had active woodworm in our cellar. Got some stuff to treat it from Amazon plus the container and spray bottle to spray it. Treated and gone within a day.

As for the damp in the loft, we own an old cottage that had it. Got a PIV unit installed which has eradicated the problem completely. Was a couple of grand to buy and fit and its cheap and quiet to run.

The above sounds like massive overkill to me.

@Londontown12 this was from a damp specialist we paid to go look at following the home survey report 🙈🙈🙈

@ErlingHaalandsManBun ok that’s good to know, thanks! Will look into this

if it’s a 1930s house then the mould will be from the insulation trapping condensation inside.
do some research into property from this era and do not use the person who has quoted and this is totally wrong advice and treatment.

if your are on Facebook, join the Your Old House UK group and post this on there.

My DH is a damp specialist this is overkill and very very expensive x

I'm in the building trade, this sounds ridiculous -

Woodworm is not uncommon, especially in older timbers, if it is not severe it can easily be sprayed with fluid which will kill off the infestation, If it has got to the point that the timbers are damaged then clearly they will need repair or replacement.

The damp, which will make the woodworm worse, they like damp wood, is caused because something has been done that has changed the normal airflow in the loft. Has some eeejit put sarking felt behind the tiles? it wouldn't have had it originally and adding it later will cause damp if there is no additional ventilation.

There are lots of options that are non painful to sort ventilation, and easy to do, soffit vents, tile vents, or a vent in the gable end (if there is one). Or simply get a Stanley knife and cut out the sarking felt to restore original ventilation.