Cold roof for storage purposes - foil or fleece on the insulation

How to tell if there are living organisms in old wood?

I can only share what indicators I have come across myself. Everyone recognizes holes or feeding tunnels, so that is not the problem.

When wood dust forms, you can easily detect it with a black surface underneath. Although the protein breaks down—faster in softwood—such a woodworm still gnaws even after that period. One must not believe that nothing is living there just because, according to the teaching, the protein in the wood is decomposed!

You can even hear them when it is quiet at night and when there are many of them. It sounds like a gentle rasping. If the wood was previously always treated with floor wax, I would be especially cautious, as the holes are not immediately visible. Once I dismantled such a softwood staircase from a demolition site over 2 days, thank God all done in front of the house and very, very quickly taken away again.

If I were to process old wood again today, I would get something decomposable from the pest controller, properly cover the floorboards with foil, and first exterminate them as a precaution. Thermal treatment is not really an option right now...

The floorboards can be laid without spacing. The vapor barrier under the insulation prevents moisture from condensing in the insulation. The top cover is only the brace in case something should escape upwards. Even normal chipboard would work, only OSB is vapor-tight but only if the joints are glued. The dust does not come from the glass wool alone.

So we have a huuuuge attic. The wool is not "covered." We simply placed tongue and groove boards on a counter batten. Nothing gets dusty up there. Some things have been up there for 4 years and are cleaner than the cabinets in the living room.