How Much Does Termite Treatment Cost in the UK? 2026 Prices

Every couple of months a reader forwards us a quote headed "termite treatment" for a house in Kent or Cheshire. It is always for something else, and usually three times what the real problem needed. Termites have no established breeding population in the United Kingdom. The only known colony, found at Saunton in North Devon in 1994, was eradicated under a government-funded programme, and nothing has replaced it.

So a British termite quote is really pricing one of four jobs: woodworm, wet rot, dry rot, or a plumbing leak that has been quietly eating a floor for two years. Below are the 2026 figures we see on real invoices, split into labour and materials, with worked examples and the checks that spot a sales visit.

The confusion is fair enough. Frass looks like sawdust and July's flying ants look alarming. If you have worked through the signs of a termite infestation and found holes in timber, the culprit in a British house is on this list.

• •Common furniture beetle (woodworm) — 1-2mm round exit holes and gritty bore dust. Much the most common finding, and frequently historic and inactive.
• •Deathwatch beetle — 3mm holes in old oak and elm, mostly pre-1800 buildings. Slow, stubborn and expensive.
• •House longhorn beetle — oval holes and blistered softwood, largely confined to parts of Surrey and north-east Hampshire.
• •Wet rot — soft, dark, stringy timber beside a leak, and the usual cause of a rotten joist end in a terrace.
• •Dry rot — rusty spore dust, grey strands, a mushroomy smell. The only one here that spreads through masonry.
• •Carpenter ants or wasps chewing timber — a pest job, not a structural one. Our exterminator cost guide covers those rates.

These are the unit rates quoted by Property Care Association member firms, inclusive of VAT at 20 per cent. Any spray job carries a minimum charge whatever the size of the affected area, because the day is gone either way.

• •Independent timber and damp survey, by a surveyor who sells no treatment: £250-£500
• •Contractor's own survey: £0-£180, usually credited against the work if you sign
• •Woodworm spray, per square metre of timber surface: £9-£18
• •Roof void treatment, typical 3-bed semi: £450-£900
• •Whole-house woodworm treatment including suspended floors: £1,200-£2,800
• •Deathwatch beetle paste and injection, per square metre: £35-£70
• •Wet rot repair, isolated joist ends and boards: £600-£2,000
• •Dry rot contained to one room: £1,500-£4,000
• •Dry rot with structural replacement and masonry sterilisation: £5,000-£15,000
• •Replacing suspended floor joists, supply and fit, per square metre: £70-£130
• •New airbrick for subfloor ventilation: £70-£140 each
• •Insurance-backed 30-year guarantee: £80-£250 on top of the job

This is the split most quotes hide, and it explains why two prices for the same job differ by £900. On a straightforward woodworm spray, materials are trivial: a 5-litre concentrate of permethrin or boron microemulsion costs a contractor £45-£90 and, diluted, covers 60-100 square metres of timber. On a £700 loft treatment that is roughly £60 of chemical, under 10 per cent of the bill.

The rest is access, preparation and time. Lifting insulation, sheeting up, moving stored belongings, masking tanks, applying two coats and reinstating takes a two-person team most of a day. Technician day rates run £260-£340 for one operative and £480-£620 for a pair. If a firm wants £1,800 to spray a small loft, ask what the second day is for.

Rot repairs invert that ratio. Timber, joist hangers, treated battens and replastering reach 35-45 per cent of the total, and dry rot adds sterilisation and sometimes an engineer's sign-off. Lifting a floor also carries reinstatement cost that quotes quietly exclude — our guide to fixing squeaky floors shows what is actually under there.

• •Region. London and the South East run 25-35 per cent above these figures; the North East, Wales and Northern Ireland sit 10-15 per cent below.
• •Access. A 1.2m crawl space under a Victorian terrace doubles the labour against a walk-in cellar, and external scaffolding adds £500-£1,200.
• •Whether the infestation is live. Old flight holes with no fresh bore dust may need nothing at all.
• •The moisture source. Treating rot without curing the leak is money burned, and clearing blocked gutters is the cheapest fix of all — see our gutter maintenance guide.
• •Occupancy and listing. Working around residents adds 20-30 per cent over an empty property, and listed-building consent with lime-compatible materials can add £1,000 more.

A 1930s semi in Bristol with active common furniture beetle in the roof void. Survey £160, roof timbers measured at 52 square metres treated at £13 per square metre for £676, guarantee £120. Total £956, one day on site.

A Victorian mid-terrace in Manchester with a springy ground-floor board beside the kitchen. The diagnosis was wet rot from a weeping waste connection, not beetle. Plumbing repair £190, lifting the floor and replacing three joist ends and 5 square metres of board £1,320, two airbricks £220. Total £1,730, with no chemical treatment needed at all.

A Georgian upper flat in Edinburgh with dry rot behind bathroom panelling. Independent survey £395, strip-out and masonry sterilisation £1,850, replacement joist and lintel work £2,400, replastering £1,750. Total £6,395 over six weeks including drying time. The first contractor through the door had quoted £11,400 without opening the wall.

A reasonable quote is boring and specific; a suspect one is urgent and vague. Remember that a firm which both diagnoses the problem and sells the cure has an obvious reason to find something.

• •It names the organism. "Timber infestation" is not a diagnosis; "active common furniture beetle in the roof void" is.
• •It states the treated area in square metres and the product's HSE registration number.
• •It separates labour, materials, guarantee and making good as line items.
• •It identifies and prices the moisture source. Rot quoted without a cause is a repeat visit waiting to happen.
• •The guarantee is underwritten by an external insurer such as GPI or QANW. A 30-year promise from a three-year-old company is worth nothing.
• •The surveyor holds CSRT or CSSW qualification and the firm is a PCA member.
• •No discount expires when the salesperson leaves your house. Walk away from that one every time.
• •It does not bundle in a chemical damp-proof course you never asked about — check the symptoms against our guide to damp and mould first.

Figures come from quotes and completed invoices shared by readers and trade contacts between late 2025 and spring 2026 across eleven UK regions, weighted towards pre-1960 housing where timber problems concentrate. All prices include VAT. Ranges cover the middle 80 per cent of what we saw; genuine outliers exist at both ends, particularly on listed properties.

We review these bands annually. Materials have moved 4-6 per cent a year lately and labour faster. If you are budgeting for the whole property rather than one job, our annual home maintenance cost guide sets timber work alongside everything else a British house asks for.