Building & timber pest inspection

Two separate scopes in one visit. The building inspection reports to AS 4349.1; the timber pest inspection reports to AS 4349.3. They are not the same thing, and we will not pretend they are.

When you need it: Perth sits in one of the highest termite-pressure regions in the country.

What it costs

$616 flat feeinc. GST ($560 + GST)

Two standards, two scopes, one visit

This is the job most Perth buyers should be booking, and the reason is not marketing. It is that AS 4349.1 excludes timber pest activity by name. Appendix D of that standard lists it among the things a building inspection does not have to cover. So a building inspection alone, done perfectly and reported properly, tells you nothing about termites.

The timber pest inspection is a separate exercise reported against AS 4349.3. Separate scope, separate walk-through, separate report. We carry them out in one visit because that is convenient for you, and we report them separately because pretending they are one document is how buyers end up believing they were covered when they were not.

What the timber pest inspection is looking for

Three things, and they are not the same problem.

Subterranean termites are the reason this inspection exists in Perth. They reach timber from the soil, and where they cannot get at it directly they build mud shelter tubes across surfaces they cannot eat — up the face of a footing, across a slab edge, inside a cavity. Those tubes are frequently the only visible evidence of a colony that has already been working inside a wall for a year. Where there is a permanent moisture source indoors, a leaking shower waste or a weeping cold water line, a colony can establish with no soil contact at all.

Borers leave exit holes and frass, and the species matters, because some are historic damage in seasoned timber and some are active. Reporting a hole without saying which is not much use to anyone.

Fungal decay is a moisture problem before it is a timber problem. Wet rot follows a leak. Where we find it, the leak is the finding and the rot is the symptom.

The barrier, and whether anyone can see it

Termite management systems are built under the AS 3660 family — AS 3660.1 for new work, AS 3660.2 for treating existing buildings, AS 3660.3 for assessing systems the first part does not detail. None of them is an inspection standard. AS 3660.1 puts inspection outside its own scope explicitly.

A physical barrier works by forcing termites into the open, where they have to build a visible tube to get past it. That only helps if somebody can see the strip. AS 3660.1 requires attachments and adjacent items to sit at least 25 mm clear of the building so the inspection zone stays visible: steps, verandas, porches, ramps, carports, trellises, decks, hot water systems, air conditioners, downpipes, service pipes.

Now think about a fifteen-year-old Perth house. Alfresco poured hard against the wall. Raised garden bed. Retaining bringing soil up over the slab edge. A concrete pad for the aircon. Every one of those is a sensible improvement, and several of them quietly bury the zone. Where the perimeter is covered we say which parts and how much, because no evidence of activity means something very different when a third of the boundary could not be seen.

Why Perth in particular

This city sits in one of the higher termite-pressure regions in the country, and the ground does not help. Across the Bassendean dune system — a broad band through the middle suburbs — the soil is deep leached sand that offers no resistance at all to termites reaching a house. On the Guildford Formation clays along the river systems, moisture is held near the surface, and moisture is what brings them in.

Every suburb page on this site opens with which ground the houses there sit on, for exactly this reason.

What you get

Two reports. The building report against AS 4349.1, covering major defects and the general condition of the place. The timber pest report against AS 4349.3, covering activity, damage, conducive conditions and the state of any management system.

Both are delivered within 24 hours of the inspection itself. Not from booking — from the inspection. Inside a finance or inspection clause that difference is the whole point.

Where either scope was limited, the report says which areas and why. An inspector who reports a clean bill on a subfloor they could not enter has reported on nothing.

Why the two inspections belong together

A building inspection and a timber pest inspection answer different questions with different standards, and in Perth they belong on the same job. The building inspection, to AS 4349.1, reports the condition of the structure and finishes. The timber pest inspection, to AS 4349.3, looks specifically for the three timber pests that matter here: subterranean termites, borers, and wood decay fungi. The reason to run them together is that the evidence overlaps. The same roof void that shows you a sagging batten also shows you the mud galleries of a termite lead, and the same subfloor that reveals a cracked bearer reveals the moisture that invites decay.

What a timber pest inspection actually checks

Termites are the headline, and Perth sits in a high-pressure zone for them. The inspection looks for live activity, for the workings and galleries that show past or present colonies, and for the conditions that make a house attractive to them: timber in contact with soil, subfloor moisture, garden beds banked against the wall, and the sandy soils across much of the coastal plain that do nothing to slow a colony's approach. It also checks whether a termite management system is present and whether it has been compromised. A physical barrier bridged by a garden bed, or a chemical barrier breached by a new path, is a system that is no longer doing its job.

Borers and wood decay are quieter but real. Decay follows moisture, so it shows up where ventilation has failed, where a shower has been leaking behind the wall for years, or where subfloor damp has never been able to dry. The inspection reads the moisture story as much as it looks for the pest itself, because the conditions predict the problem.

What the inspection cannot promise

Both standards are visual and non-invasive, and that limit matters most with termites, because termites hide. They travel inside timber and inside walls, and a wall lining with active workings behind it can look perfectly sound from the room. The inspection reports what is visible and what the moisture readings and conditions suggest, and where the risk is high it recommends the next step, which may be a more invasive investigation or a management plan from a licensed pest technician. What it does not do is guarantee a house is termite-free, because no visual inspection can see inside a sealed wall. Anyone who offers that guarantee is offering something the standard does not support.

What you do with the report

On a purchase, the combined report tells you three things: the condition of the building, the presence or evidence of timber pests, and the conditions that will invite pests in future. The first informs your offer. The second may stop the purchase or trigger a treatment before settlement. The third is your maintenance list for the years after you move in, because in Perth keeping a house dry and keeping timber away from soil is most of what keeps termites out.

How termites actually get into a Perth house

Understanding how termites arrive tells you what the inspection is really looking at. Subterranean termites, the species that matter here, live in a nest in the ground and travel to their food, which is the timber in your house. They cannot survive long in the open air, so they build mud tubes, called leads or galleries, to bridge from the soil to the timber while staying sealed inside their own humid environment. Those mud leads are one of the clearest signs an inspection looks for, running up the inside of a subfloor pier, across a slab edge, or up the cavity of a brick wall where the inspection can follow them.

What makes a house attractive to them is a combination of moisture, warmth, and access to timber, and Perth's building stock and climate supply all three readily. Timber in contact with soil is an open door. A leaking hot water system or air-conditioning condensate keeping one patch of ground permanently damp is an invitation. Garden beds banked up against the wall, mulch and retained soil bridging over the top of a barrier, subfloor ventilation that has been blocked off, all of these create the conditions a colony is looking for. A large part of what the inspection assesses is not just whether termites are present now, but whether the house is set up to invite them, because that predicts the risk over the years you will own it.

What the two standards actually cover

The building inspection reports to AS 4349.1 and the timber pest inspection to AS 4349.3, and it is worth being clear about what each does and does not promise. Both are visual and non-invasive. Neither involves cutting into walls, lifting floor coverings, or dismantling any part of the building, and that limit matters most with termites, because termites hide inside timber and inside wall cavities where a visual inspection cannot follow. A wall lining with active workings behind it can look perfectly sound from the room. The inspection reports what is visible, what the moisture readings suggest, and where the conditions point to elevated risk, and where that risk is high it recommends the next step, which may be a more invasive investigation by a licensed pest technician.

What the inspection does not do, and cannot do, is guarantee a house is free of termites. No visual, non-invasive inspection can see inside a sealed wall or into the core of a timber member, and anyone offering that guarantee is offering something the standard does not support and physics does not allow. What a careful inspection gives you is an accurate reading of the present evidence and the conditions, which is the honest and useful thing, and a clear statement of where a more invasive look is warranted.

What you do with the combined report

Run together on the same visit, the building and pest inspections give you three distinct things, and it is worth separating them. First, the condition of the building itself, which informs what you offer and what you budget to put right. Second, the presence of, or evidence of, timber pests, which may stop the purchase, trigger a treatment as a condition of settlement, or simply need monitoring. Third, and most often overlooked, the conditions around the house that will invite pests in future, which becomes your maintenance list for the years after you move in. In Perth, keeping a house dry, keeping timber away from soil, and keeping the barrier and the subfloor ventilation clear is most of what keeps termites out, and the report tells you where your particular house is exposed.