A termite colony works from the inside out. By the time a floor feels soft or a skirting board sounds hollow, the colony has usually been feeding for several years. Nothing about the process is visible from the street, which is why the inspection matters more than any single treatment.

The inspection

We check the sub-floor and perimeter first, then every point where timber meets soil or masonry, then the roof void. Suspect timber is metered for moisture rather than tapped, because a hollow sound is a late symptom and a raised moisture reading is an early one. Mud tubes on foundation walls, discarded wings near windows and blistered paint all go in the report with photographs.

Choosing a treatment

A liquid soil barrier is applied as a continuous treated zone around and under the structure. It works well in stable, well-drained soil and typically holds for five to eight years.

A monitored bait system places stations in the soil at intervals around the building. Foraging termites find them, feed, and carry the active ingredient back to the colony. It is slower to take effect and it needs quarterly servicing, but it works where a barrier cannot be made continuous — heavy clay, loose fill, or a building with additions and hard landscaping over the foundation line.

After treatment

Annual re-inspection is the whole point. A treated building is not a permanently protected building, and the report you get each year is what proves continuity to an insurer or a buyer.