Five years of inspections, and nobody looked
A Reedy Creek homeowner paid another company for an annual termite inspection five years running. Every report came back clear. When Richard finally got the call, there was years of damage in the roof and the subfloor — some of it visible from the top of the ladder.
She did everything a homeowner is told to do
A termite management system installed. In-ground bait stations around the property. A paid inspection every year, on schedule, for five years. Every one of those inspections came back clear.
She wasn’t happy with the service she was getting and eventually called for a second opinion. What Richard found had been in the building for years.
Some of the roof damage was visible from the top of the ladder. You did not need to crawl the void to see it.
Aged damage in the roof timbers and the subfloor
Not fresh activity from the last few months — established, galleried damage that had been eating structural timber over multiple seasons.
Spent stations are not protection
Every in-ground station was exhausted. Completely spent, and by the look of them they had not been properly checked in recent years either.
A baiting system is not a set-and-forget product. Stations need to be opened, inspected and replenished on a schedule, because spent stations protect nothing — they just sit in the ground looking like protection. Replacing them came to $1,400: money spent to get the system back to where the owner had been paying to keep it all along.
At least $10,000, and that is a floor
The conservative estimate on structural repairs is $10,000, not a ceiling. Damage of this age has a habit of extending further once a builder starts opening things up.
Almost none of it needed to happen. Termites do not do $10,000 of damage overnight. They do it over years, in small increments, in the exact places an inspection is supposed to look. Caught at the first annual inspection, or the second, this would have been a treatment and a small repair.
An invoice and a clear report are not the same thing as an inspection
Richard won’t name the other company. But a termite inspection is only worth what the inspector actually does on the day, and a homeowner standing in the driveway has no way of knowing which one they got. Four questions worth asking yours.
Did you get into the roof void and the subfloor?
Not looked in — got in, and moved through them. Genuinely restricted access belongs in the report, in writing.
Were the bait stations opened and checked?
Every station, with the condition of each one recorded.
Can I see photos?
A report with photographs of the areas inspected is evidence those areas were inspected.
Does the report comply with AS 3660.2?
The Australian Standard sets out what a termite inspection covers and how limitations must be recorded.
A second opinion costs a great deal less than the repairs
Richard does termite inspections and full building and pest inspections across the Gold Coast, including Reedy Creek and the surrounding suburbs — into the roof and under the house, every time.