Woodworm ? Rot? or both?

[versioncity]

I noticed one of the floorboards was "bouncing" near the back door and pulled up the carpet to find the floor in a bit of a mess. The house is Victorian & been bodged here and there over the years. Started pulling up the floorboards and found the joists to be crumbling (more so towards the exterior of the house) Please have a look at the pics. It looks like woodworm to me. Can I cut the joists back, replace & treat? Also the earth in the foundation/ cellar, is this partly causing the problem? Should I dig it out?

Any help please.

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[gregers]

looks like plain old woodworm to me,yes clear the oversite of all loose debris/earth,replace timbers with new(pretreated)looks straight forward little job as you have judging by the photos sleeper walls.think if you can you need to introduce some sub floor ventilation ie new airvent/s.
if the wall plate nearest the door has rotted away replace with new but wrap the underside and back of it so it is isolated from the wall.

 

[versioncity]

Greg. Thanks. Can you (and anyone else) just have a look at the photos below. Underneath the floorboards the brick has "growth" on it. Is this dry rot, anything to be worried about?

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[gregers]

to me,it looks like normal spalling/salt contamination which iirc is normal as its under the floor etc.if you have doubts then spray some fungicide solution over the walls just to make sure.

 

[joinerjohn]

The brickwork growth is efflourescence. As Gregers says, it's salts etc coming out of the bricks and is nothing to worry about.
Timber certainly looks like woodworm (actually caused by a type of beetle). The holes are made when the beetle larvae turn into beetles and exit the wood.

 

[versioncity]

Thanks JJ.

is there anything else I could do regarding clearing the earth underneath? I've taken the whole lot down about 2ft this morning, but obviously quite a lot more to do. Could I just cover it with a layer of sand or lime or something (?) to help absorb the moisture.

By the way thanks both of you for replying.

 

[mnb]

Like the guys said, it's beetle damage and innocent chemicals on the brickwork. As suggested, do wrap the joist tails/ends where they sit in the brickwork - use strong plastic builders bags or DPC if any handy.
Make sure that the short joists are firmly wedged or fixed in place at both bearing ends, otherwise they will bounce.
Make sure that you have plenty of ventilation in the sub-floor area - clean out all vents. No need to dig out or lower levels of oversite.