People may have heard of a termite inspection but not a lot know what really goes on behind the scenes. Some may think the inspector will simply come over, tap a few walls, write a report, and that’s it! In reality, you have to be a little wary if the inspection is over and done in under an hour. This is why you have to be aware of what takes place during the inspection.
Of course, the technician is generally expected to check for signs of termite working in every observable nook and cranny in the property. Depending on the size of the home, it’ll often take an hour or more to perform the assessment. An inspection that is thoroughly done should take an ample amount of time, indeed.
This kind of pest inspection often takes time and that’s because white ants tend to avoid open air and bright lights. They’ll mostly stay underground or within wooden features until someone disturbs the colony or they’ve run out of wood to eat. The fact is that it’s nearly impossible for anyone to visually identify or locate an active infestation just with a mere look at surfaces, walls, or trims without so much as a knock on the wooden parts (literally).
It’ll require careful investigation just to look for clues of termite activity in any property. That’s why inspectors leave no stones unturned in their mission of locating these menaces.
Termite inspections begin with the technician looking at exterior features and installations e.g. garden, garage, fence line, sheds, etc. During this phase, he/she will take a long, hard look at potential risk factors that could make the place susceptible to an invasion.
The technician will look for termite nests and termite activity in garden timbers, tree stumps, or any other wooden items that may potentially attract subterranean termites, too. Anticipating that the source of the attack will be from beyond the perimeters, he or she will even pop a head over the fence to get a good view of the potential risk factors lying beyond the fence line.
Standard Interior Inspection
Once the inspector is done checking vulnerabilities on the perimeter and underneath the home, he or she will then move into the interiors. You’d often see the technician tapping walls with a donger.
If you’re wondering what this is for, understand that tapping serves 3 main purposes. Technicians do this to listen for hollow spots in the timber; tapping helps listen for the rustling of any crumbling dry termite structures; and it elicits a panic response among the termites hiding within the affected wall. It’s interesting to note that termites will knock their heads and bodies against the timber when they sense a threat is coming to warn other members of the colony. By tapping the walls with a donger, the inspector can trigger this response to which he or she can listen in from the other side of the wall.
Whenever possible, the inspector checks the roof void, too. He or she will be watching for signs of termite activity like mud leads, termite working, termite frass, or wood rot. Any signs of leak will be noted, too, as they’d indicate a wood rot happening somewhere. This may be read as a sign of an ongoing termite infestation.
Post-Inspection Report
After the on-site timber pest inspection is complete, expect to get the report in a couple of days. The document should indicate all the technician’s findings and recommendations. The subsequent recommendations may range from something as simple as ensuring weep holes are unobstructed to complex ones like suggesting a tree stump removal. In some cases, the recommendations may be preventive in nature like moving back garden beds or fixing leaky down pipes or taps.
In case alarming levels of termite activity or threat of an incoming invasion were found, the inspector may recommend remedial or/and preventative termite treatments.
In the absence of any glaring evidence of termite presence, the inspection report may suspect that the colony is located in some nook that isn’t readily accessible. This is why some reports will recommend further investigation to come up with a more thorough finding. But if no trace of such unwanted guests have been found then, the inspector will still recommend putting up termite barriers or placing baits.
You wouldn’t want to find one day that such destructive pests have already breached your property’s perimeter, after all.
Cost of a Termite Inspection
Despite the importance of making sure your estate is termite-free, property owners may hesitate to get the inspection done primarily due to financial constraints. If you’re wondering how much it’ll cost, know that the price varies on the region your property is located and the size of the place to be inspected. The bigger the estate, the higher the inspection cost may be.
Ideally, termite inspections have to be done at least once a year and in some cases every six months. And religiously following this prescribed schedule will save homeowners thousands down the track.
Even if a termite management system or chemical barrier has been put up around the dwellings perimeter, this doesn’t mean you can go ahead and forget the problem. The aforementioned preventive pest control options still have to be checked annually because termites are quite elusive. You can never be too sure that your property remains to be impregnable for as long as these menaces are just biding their time in wait for an opportune time to breach your defences.
Indeed, it pays to have a good understanding of everything that gets involved in a termite inspection. Having a good grasp of what happens should help ease your worries over termites destroying your place undetected as well as keep you safe from crooks who may take advantage of a consumer’s lack of knowledge and simply take their money and run off into the night.
To be sure you wouldn’t end up with either unfortunate consequences, call our trusted and honest team and we’ll thoroughly assess your property in search of those elusive threats.