Annual termite inspection AS 3660.2 in Cairns — what’s actually checked.
An honest walk-through of the 28-point AS 3660.2 inspection we run on a Cairns home every year — why the sub-floor and roof void are the two highest-yield checks, what the written report covers, and when six-monthly beats twelve. Inspector PMT-licensed under Queensland Health.
What AS 3660.2 actually demands.
AS 3660.2 is the Australian Standard that governs termite management for existing buildings — the companion to AS 3660.1 (new construction) and AS 4349.3 (pre-purchase). The standard sets a minimum inspection scope, the equipment that must be used, the report format, and the frequency. It is not optional reading for the inspector, and any Queensland Health Pest Management Technician working in Cairns should be able to recite the inspection points from memory before they walk onto your property.
The 28 inspection points break into four zones: perimeter and grounds, sub-floor (if accessible), interior wet areas and timber, and the roof void. Each zone has its own toolkit — a stiff probe and torch for mud tubes around stumps and slab edges, a Tramex or Protimeter moisture meter for sub-floor and bathroom timber, a thermal camera on the difficult cavities, and a long-handled mirror for the awkward weep-hole and ant-cap checks. The standard expects readings to be documented, not just observed.
The sub-floor: 40 percent of detections.
A Cairns sub-floor is the perfect termite environment — dark, humid, undisturbed, and full of timber stumps in soil contact. If your home has a crawl space, the inspector should be in there for at least 30 minutes with a torch and a probe. They are looking for active mud tubes climbing the stumps, fresh frass at the base of bearer timbers, moisture-meter spikes on the joists nearest the bathroom waste, and any sign of a sub-slab vent that has been blocked off by landscaping mounding above. Of every live-termite detection we record across the Cairns region in a 12-month window, around four in ten come out of the sub-floor alone. Skipping it is not an inspection, it is a tick-box.
The roof void: where Mastotermes lives.
Cairns sits in the natural range of Mastotermes darwiniensis, the giant northern termite — the largest and most destructive species in Australia. Mastotermes will gallery three metres up a wall cavity and emerge in a roof void rafter without ever showing a sign at ground level. The roof-void check is where we find it. We torch every rafter joint, tap-test the ridge beam, and use a moisture meter wherever air-conditioner condensate or a flashing leak has wet the timber. Roughly one in twelve Cairns roof voids has something worth reporting in any given year — either active workings, old damage, or conducive conditions that need fixing before the next wet season.
What you receive, and how often.
The written report lands as a PDF within 24 hours. It is not a three-page summary — a proper AS 3660.2 report runs 15 to 25 pages. The cover page carries the inspector’s Queensland Health PMT licence number, the QBCC licence reference for any treatment work, and the date the report becomes valid. The body of the report walks each of the 28 inspection points with photographs and moisture readings, and the limitations clause names every cavity we could not access (a built-in robe back, a sealed sub-floor vent, a packed roof void) and why. The recommendations block is direct: either ‘no further action’, ‘monitor and re-inspect at six months’, or ‘treatment required — quotation attached’.
The renewal cycle is set by risk, not by calendar default. Twelve months is the standard. We move clients to six-monthly when the property has a sub-floor crawl space with persistent moisture, sits on rainforest-backed land at Edge Hill or Redlynch, has prior live workings recorded, or carries a chemical soil barrier in its later years. Six-monthly is also the warranty trigger for Sentricon-baited homes — the bait stations need a 26-week monitoring visit to stay live. A reminder goes out 30 days before the renewal date, and we keep the unbroken inspection history on file because that is the document insurers ask for when a claim is lodged.
Common questions about the AS 3660.2 inspection.
How long does it take?
Sixty to 90 minutes for a standard slab-on-ground three-bedder. Two hours plus for a high-set Queenslander with a sub-floor, or for a complex Edge Hill split-level. The sub-floor and roof void alone account for about half of the on-site time.
Does it cover the garden and outbuildings?
Yes — AS 3660.2 extends to all timber and conducive conditions within roughly 30 metres of the main building. That includes the timber fence, the garden shed, any retaining wall sleepers, and trees with cracks or hollows that can harbour a Mastotermes nest. The scope is the property, not just the slab footprint.
What if you find active termites mid-inspection?
We stop, document the workings with photographs, do not disturb the mud tubes, and brief you on the species before we leave site. A treatment quotation follows in the same 24-hour window as the report. Disturbing live workings causes the colony to abandon and re-attack elsewhere on the property, so the first rule is: leave them where they are until the treatment plan is set.
Will a builder’s warranty stay valid without an annual inspection?
No. Every new-build chemical-barrier warranty in Queensland requires an annual AS 3660.2 inspection by a licensed technician, with the report retained on file. Miss one year and the barrier warranty is void — the manufacturer will not pay out, and neither will your home insurer. The annual inspection is the cheapest single line item that keeps the warranty alive.
Book an AS 3660.2 termite inspection.
Cairns CBD, Edge Hill, Edmonton, Trinity Beach, Smithfield, Manunda, Mooroobool, Westcourt and Bayview Heights. Written report within 24 hours.