Spiders Are Our Friends!
29/11/11 17:08 Filed in: Historic Buildings | Surveying
As these words are written ‘Specialist’ timber treatment firms are hard at work spraying toxic chemicals to treat woodworm in houses across the Southern Counties. Not long ago more than £100,000 was spent on such work at one building on the Isle of Wight! From Lime Regis to Lymington and in every direction beyond it is time for re-thinking woodworm control mechanisms, follow this link to read more
Fully effective treatment may be impossible without causing more damage than the beetles themselves. Spraying toxins into floor voids may cause more harm to household pets than the beetle colonies and will certainly destroy the biggest woodworm predator – the spider. Under floors and in lofts etc., webs are good! Test your surveyor: does he/she know that woodworm can’t thrive with central heating in well insulated buildings? Does your Homebuyer Valuation or Building Survey admit that Death Watch Beetles have probably been in your cottage for centuries and will continue long after you have gone! More than anything, spiders will speed the decline of a beetle population in a well maintained building: by all means keep their webs out of your habitable rooms, but don’t harm them in hidden voids and lofts.
Surface spray treatments are generally ineffective in the long term, so don’t let them happen! Instead, reduce dampness in timber by providing better ventilation and reducing condensation and isolating timber from dampness.
Fully effective treatment may be impossible without causing more damage than the beetles themselves. Spraying toxins into floor voids may cause more harm to household pets than the beetle colonies and will certainly destroy the biggest woodworm predator – the spider. Under floors and in lofts etc., webs are good! Test your surveyor: does he/she know that woodworm can’t thrive with central heating in well insulated buildings? Does your Homebuyer Valuation or Building Survey admit that Death Watch Beetles have probably been in your cottage for centuries and will continue long after you have gone! More than anything, spiders will speed the decline of a beetle population in a well maintained building: by all means keep their webs out of your habitable rooms, but don’t harm them in hidden voids and lofts.
Surface spray treatments are generally ineffective in the long term, so don’t let them happen! Instead, reduce dampness in timber by providing better ventilation and reducing condensation and isolating timber from dampness.
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Valuation: Advice From John Ruskin
In Victorian times – still good today! The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is the predominant global authority in the field of property (real estate) Valuation. The Institution has from time to time sponsored eminent working parties and assembled committees of accredited professionals to publish or revise definitions of “Market Value”. The distinctions between price, value and cost fill many pages of discussion and are a continuing topic of conversation. Here is what John Ruskin, the noted Victorian commentator contributed to the on-going debate more than a Century ago:
“It is unwise to pay too much, but worse to pay too little; when you pay too much, you lose a little money, that’s all.
When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the things it was bought to do.
The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot. It can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run. And if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better.
There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper; the people who consider price only are this man’s lawful prey”.
On a continuing basis we investigate values in our region, extending from Dorset to Sussex, including Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. The New Forest, Southampton and Portsmouth are within a 35 mile radius of our office.
Our contribution to the continuous valuation debate is to rely heavily upon good comparable market evidence, but never to take anything at face value, always look behind the “evidence”.
“It is unwise to pay too much, but worse to pay too little; when you pay too much, you lose a little money, that’s all.
When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the things it was bought to do.
The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot. It can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run. And if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better.
There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper; the people who consider price only are this man’s lawful prey”.
On a continuing basis we investigate values in our region, extending from Dorset to Sussex, including Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. The New Forest, Southampton and Portsmouth are within a 35 mile radius of our office.
Our contribution to the continuous valuation debate is to rely heavily upon good comparable market evidence, but never to take anything at face value, always look behind the “evidence”.
