Termite inspection Perth.
Every accessible timber, documented.

Why an inspection comes first

Subterranean termites do not announce themselves. By the time a skirting board sounds hollow or a door frame gives under a thumb, the colony has usually been feeding for months. Perth's northern suburbs give them everything they need: warm sandy soil that is easy to tunnel, garden beds built against brick, timber retaining walls, and a swarm season that runs from November to April.

An inspection is the only way to know where you stand. It is also the first step of every treatment. AS 3660.2 requires a thorough inspection before a management system is designed, and any quote you receive without one is a guess. We inspect, report, and only then price a treatment if one is needed.

What is inspected

The inspection follows AS 4349.3:2010, the Australian Standard for timber pest inspections of buildings. It is a visual inspection of accessible areas, supported by instruments. On a typical northern-suburbs home we cover:

• Roof void. Entered where the manhole and clearance allow. We check rafters, battens, ceiling joists, wall plates and the tops of internal walls for mud leads, damage and moisture.
• Sub-floor. Timber-floored homes in older parts of Duncraig, Sorrento and Carine have crawl spaces. We inspect bearers, joists, stumps, piers and ant caps, and note ventilation and drainage.
• Interior. Every room. Skirtings, architraves, door and window frames, built-in cupboards, wet-area timbers and any exposed structural timber. Timbers are sounded with a tapping tool and read with a moisture meter where the surface allows.
• Exterior. Slab edge and weep holes, wall-to-ground contact, paving and garden beds against walls, timber decks, pergolas, garages and carports, sheds, external stairs.
• Grounds. Fences, retaining walls, sleepers, tree stumps, timber stored on the ground and trees within 50 metres of the building, where they are on the property.

We photograph evidence and points of interest as we go. The photos go into the report, not a filing cabinet.

The limitations, stated plainly

AS 4349.3 is a visual inspection. It cannot see inside a wall cavity, under a fixed floor covering, behind stored goods, under a concrete slab or inside a timber. We do not move furniture or stored items, lift carpet or open walls. Where clearance in a roof void or sub-floor is too low, or an area is unsafe, we say so in the report rather than pretend we saw it.

Moisture readings and sounding raise the odds of finding concealed activity but do not remove the possibility. A clear report means no evidence was found in the accessible areas on the day. It is not a statement about the future, which is why the Standard recommends inspections at intervals not exceeding 12 months.

What the report contains

• Property description, construction type, date and weather, and who was present.
• Areas inspected and areas not accessible, with the reason for each.
• Evidence of live subterranean termites, with species where identifiable and photographs.
• Evidence of previous termite activity or damage, and whether it appears to have been treated.
• Evidence of borers, timber decay (fungal rot) and, where relevant, other timber pests.
• Conducive conditions: moisture, drainage, timber-to-ground contact, garden beds bridging the slab edge, stored timber, leaking taps and air-conditioner drains.
• Any existing termite management system, its condition and whether it is being maintained.
• Recommendations, in order of priority, with an indicative cost where treatment or repairs are advised.

The report is emailed as a PDF, usually the same day. We keep a copy for three years as the Health (Pesticides) Regulations 2011 require of treatment records, and longer for our own files.

Risk factors in Perth's northern suburbs

The northern corridor is not one environment. The coastal strip from Sorrento to Yanchep sits on deep Spearwood and Quindalup sands: free-draining, warm and easy for termites to tunnel through. Further inland, the limestone ridge suburbs such as Greenwood, Warwick and Kingsley carry pockets of shallow limestone that push moisture and termite activity toward the slab edge. Both are active termite country.

Housing stock matters as much as soil. Brick-and-tile homes from the 1970s and 1980s in Duncraig, Padbury and Warwick often have decades of garden build-up against the walls, timber pergolas added later and no maintained chemical barrier. Newer estates in Alkimos, Butler and Clarkson generally have a physical or chemical system installed at construction, but it only remains effective if it is inspected and not bridged by paving, a new deck or a raised garden bed.

Then there is the bush. Yellagonga Regional Park, Warwick Bushland, Star Swamp, the Neerabup reserves and dozens of smaller pockets keep a standing population of Coptotermes acinaciformis, the species behind most structural damage in Perth. If your property backs onto or sits within a few streets of reserve bush, we treat it as elevated risk and say so.

Pre-purchase timber pest inspections

Buying in the northern suburbs? A pre-purchase timber pest inspection follows the same AS 4349.3 method but is written for a buyer. It leans harder on limitations, on what could not be accessed with the current owner's furniture and stored goods in place, and on the conducive conditions you would want to fix or negotiate on. We can usually inspect within two to three business days and report the same day, which suits a standard WA settlement timeline.

We do not do the building inspection. If your building inspector also offers a timber pest report, ask whether it is a separate AS 4349.3 report by a licensed pest management technician. Ours is.