On Friday I was doing a little deep cleaning in the hallway; wiping walls down, skirting boards, getting the fluff hidden in the corners behind things when I hit one of the skirting boards with the vacuum cleaner and it split clean in two.
Distraught, I pulled the broken section out with the aim of glueing it back on, only to realise that it was full of little bore holes. Yes. We have woodworm.
Immediately, I pulled up the laminate flooring in there only to see one corner of the hall was riddled with woodworm bores. I then started removing the floorboards (which wasn’t difficult as they pushed through – without the laminate flooring we would have known about this much quicker as the worms hadn’t bored into the laminate.
After a quick assessment of the situation it was decided that the whole woodwork in the hall needed replacing immediately, and work needed to be done to preserve the stairs and prevent further damage.
I went to our local Jewson, bought the wood (tannalised joists just because of the previous problem), redwood floorboards (more resistant to woodworm than pine) and got chemicals to kill the infestation and hopefully prevent further spread into the new boards.
So Good Friday was spent replacing a floor (the work spilled onto Saturday as I ran out of boards due to wastage – I wanted continuous runs wherever possible to avoid draughts).
The new floor went down a treat, and with two joins needed mid-beam due to me being unable to slide in certain boards due to radiator pipes and the shape of the door frame. All the underneath was treated with the chemicals, and the underside of the stairs was also treated to prevent further spread and kill off any live woodworm. I pulled the carpet up a few steps and it looks like the little bastards haven’t gone too far as apart from a few bores on the bottom riser, there’s nothing else.
The floor has been fully rubbed down with 40 and then 70 grit sandpaper and given two coats of an acrylic floor varnish (with a rub down with 100 grit inbetween coats). I intend to give it another 2 coats to get a really smooth finish.
Today is Easter Sunday. Nothing is open, and so we’re going to my Mother-in-Law’s for dinner.
Tomorrow, I’ll be getting a length of skirting board. 6″ torus, rather than the 4″ that is on. I think 6″ will just look a lot better because of the age of the house, and it’s likely what was fitted when it was built.
I’m then going to visit a customer this week who supplies UPVC and get a sill to cover the horrible concrete step. We have always painted it before, but even proper floor paint cracks off very quickly.