Termite protection has a reputation for costing thousands, and sometimes it does — but the honest spending order starts far cheaper, and plenty of homes never need the expensive step at all. Here is where each dollar goes, in the order it earns its keep.

First dollar: the $269 that decides everything

The annual termite inspection is the highest-value spend in the entire category — it is detection, risk assessment and expert advice in one visit, and every other decision depends on what it finds. A home that only ever spends this, every year, is doing more than most.

Second: the fixes that cost almost nothing

The inspection report’s conducive-conditions section is a free-to-cheap to-do list: firewood off the wall, mulch below the slab edge, the dripping tap fixed, the stump finally removed — the backyard audit and moisture guide cover the lot. These lower actual risk, not just anxiety, and they make every later dollar work harder.

Third: the system, when the home warrants it

A management system — chemical or baiting — earns its cost for the homes the inspection flags: history of activity, high-pressure sites, expired previous protection, bushland edges. Quoted to the property, with chemical installations carrying up to a 60-month free service period, kept active by completing the annual termite inspection with us each year. What a system is not: a substitute for the inspection, ever.

What never earns a dollar

DIY termite products aimed at visible termites — worse than useless, because disturbance makes professional treatment harder. If budget is genuinely tight, spend the $269, do the free fixes, and skip the hardware-store aisle entirely.

Call 0490 425 521 or request a quote online — licensed technicians, QBCC Licence 15104001, and honest advice about which step your home is actually at.