Termite Damage
Repair Costs

WORRIED ABOUT TERMITES?

Termites are known to be tiny but they can result in a big problem for you and your house. Termites often fester in obscure places and may go unnoticed until you are in the middle of a full-blown termite infestation. The cost of termite damage can be thousands of dollars upfront and hundreds of thousands of dollars in the long run. Let’s have a look at what termite costs are in Australia. 

cost of termite damage in Australia
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Termite Costs: Statistics Reveal Most Homes Unprotected Against Termites

Currently, Australia is in the middle of a termite epidemic with 32% of the homes in Australia being overridden with termites, according to a CSIRO survey. There is an 80% chance that you are living within 25 meters of a termite colony and don’t even know it. It is very likely that your home is currently unprotected as it is reported that only 20% of homes have been serviced or inspected for termite protection.The only part of mainland Australia that is rated by the CSIRO as Low to Very Low risk for termite attack is the narrow strip along the Great Ocean Road west of Melbourne. Therefore, the rest of Australia is in Moderate to High to Very High-risk areas. And Queensland is one of the hardest hit. So the cost of termite damage to the Queensland home owner is high.
termites cause a lot of damage to Australian homes

Termite damage in Australia

The damage done by termite infestation has been estimated to cost over $4 billion to the building industry. Every year almost 180,000 Australian homes are affected and as a result, the annual cost of repairs amount to a huge sum of $1.3 billion. The mitigation of a termite infestation will cost you anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 in structural repairs coupled with the treatment costs can incur you a loss of anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000 depending on the location and size of your house.

Mounting Costs Of Termite Damage

insurance coverage of termite damage in Australia
The costs associated with a termite infestation manifest themselves in more ways than one and sometimes they are not evident immediately. After a termite infestation, the house can look pretty shabby requiring some repairs which do nothing for the structural integrity of the house but to return the house to its former glory, so you can expect a hefty amount of your income to go these cosmetic repairs. The real damage emerges in the resale value of the house as this value is said to go down by as much as 25% according to an Australian study conducted in 2015. Even though you may not have a full-blown infestation, it may come up during a resale as 99% of sales involve a termite inspection and adversely affect your resale price.
A survey, in 2015, reported that 75% of homeowners will not buy a home if termites were found during the inspection.
Some people have misconceptions about what termites eat and (therefore) how safe their home is. We’ve written articles about two of the main factors that people mis-read. The first is called Can Termites Eat Hardwood (spoiler: yes) and the other is Can Termites Infest A Brick Home (second spoiler: yes).

Preventing termite damage costs

It is much better to protect yourself from infestation rather than waiting for a disaster to happen. The most damaging termites are the subterranean termites as they make their way from the soil into our buildings.You can also protect yourself by getting termite inspections done by an experience and qualified inspector.We use state of the art equipment such as thermal imaging and moisture meters, combined with our knowledge and experience. We find termite activity where others have missed.You can also get an effective termite protection system installed. We use BASF’s ATBS for total elimination of termites. It will certainly cost less to prevent an infestation rather than treating one.
For best results choose Gold Coast Pest Inspector for your pest control needs.

Termite Inspection Costs

All those scary figures above probably lead to the next questions. How much does it cost to get my home inspected for termites? There’s a simple answer, and that’s “Much less than the cost of repairing termite damage.” But that’s not helpful if you’re wondering what it’ll cost for us to come and inspect your property.

We don’t often publish costs of inspections and treatments because there are often factors that change costs on individual buildings. We’re more than happy to give you quote if you call us. We’d recommend talking to a few pest inspectors and asking them more than just what their costs are. We’ve written an article based on termite damage other inspectors missed. And there is hardly a week goes by when we don’t see termites others have missed. There seems little point in paying for someone to do a failed inspection. So, our advice is, consider costs but also take into account the inspector’s experience and professionalism.

You can also refer to Canstar’s article on termite inspections.

The Cost Of Getting The Wrong Inspector

One thing is for sure: not all inspectors are equal. Richard regularly sees everything from minor (but concerning) evidence of termites all the way up to massive damage in properties that have recently been inspected. Below we have a few images of a property that was inspected just two months prior. 

For more images like this see our article Evidence Of Termites Others Missed.

When you get an inspection done, make sure your inspector is thorough, careful, knowledgeable and professional. The costs of his/her mistakes will be your costs. As we’ve pointed out above, they can be expensive, not covered by insurance. 

Termites And Brick Homes

Many people believe that because they live in a brick home they’re safe from termites. We know from experience that termites can and do invade brick homes. The cost of damages in brick homes can equal the damages in any other home. If termites invade a brick home and eat all the timber framing in a bathroom, that repair costs as much as the bathroom in a timber home. Termites invade brick homes by using mudding to create a tunnel across bricks. This mudding allows them to travel up bricks and into the home. For more information read our article, Can Termites Invade A Brick Home?

Termites Damages To Hardwood Timbers

One of the other misconceptions about termites is that they won’t eat hardwood timbers. This is only partially true. Termites prefer softer timbers but they will eat hardwood timbers. Sometimes they’ll just eat channels through it to get across it to better timbers beyond. Or they may eat it because it’s all that’s available. If water is involved, such as a leak in a roof, then the softened timber will be much more desirable to the termite. And that’s when it can get very expensive. The cost of replacing damaged frame timbers in your roof can be quite high. For more information, see our article Can Termites Eat Hardwood?

Summary

If you live on the Gold Coast, or in any termite prevalent areas of Australia, you should protect yourself against termites. The costs of termite damages averaging $10,000 means you can expect $10,000 dollars worth to damages in your home if you have termites. If might be less. It might be much more. We find termite activity in almost every home we inspect on the Gold Coast so we can say with some certainty that your home is at risk of termite damages. You need to mitigate this risk by having termite inspections and termite bait stations installed.

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