Termite treatment day in Officer, hour by hour
A full perimeter barrier on a typical Officer slab home is one day: 2 technicians, 5 to 8 hours, arriving about 7.30am and finished mid to late afternoon. Trenching takes 2 to 4 hours, drilling the concrete sections 1 to 3 loud hours, application 1 to 2 hours, and reinstatement and paperwork about another hour. A bait system install is shorter at 3 to 5 hours.
Every stage, how long it takes and what stalls it
| Stage | How long | What happens | What you need to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Pre-visit call 2 to 5 days before | 10 minutes | We confirm the measured perimeter, the product, access down both sides, pets, the meter box location, where the ute and tank can park, and whether you are on tank water. | Send photos of the side access and the meter box notice. Flag any pool, pond, chooks or vegetable beds. |
| 2. Arrival and site walk 7.30am to 8.00am | 20 to 30 minutes | Re-measure the perimeter, mark underground services, confirm the scope line by line against the quote, lay tarps, set out the drill and the mixing tank. | Be home, unlock every gate, secure the dog, move the cars. |
| 3. Trenching the soil runs Morning | 2 to 4 hours | A trench roughly 150 mm wide is cut against the wall down to the top of the footing on every section of open soil. Spoil goes onto tarps, not onto the lawn. | Stay clear of the working strip. Keep pets inside. |
| 4. Drilling the hard surfaces Late morning | 1 to 3 hours | 12 mm holes at roughly 200 to 300 mm centres through the path, porch, alfresco slab and garage apron so the treated zone continues under the concrete. This is the noisy, dusty hour or two. | Plan calls, naps and nervous dogs around this window. We will tell you when it starts. |
| 5. Mixing and application Early afternoon | 1 to 2 hours | Product is mixed to the label rate and applied to the trench and to the backfill in layers, plus injected through every drill hole. A 58 metre perimeter typically uses around 290 litres of diluted emulsion. | Keep everyone and every animal off the strip until it is backfilled. |
| 6. Internal slab penetrations If in scope | 30 to 60 minutes | Treatment at the shower recess, plumbing penetrations and expansion joints inside the building where the scope calls for it. | Clear the bathroom and laundry floor and move the bath mats. |
| 7. Reinstatement and clean down Mid afternoon | 45 to 60 minutes | Soil returned and compacted in layers, drill holes plugged flush and colour matched as closely as the concrete allows, paving washed down, tarps and rubbish loaded out. | Walk the perimeter with the technician before anyone signs anything. |
| 8. Paperwork and durable notice Before we leave | 15 to 20 minutes | Treatment certificate showing product, APVMA registration, concentration, litres applied, treated metres, date, technician and licence, plus the warranty document and a new durable notice fixed in the meter box. | Check the treated metres on the certificate match the metres on the quote. |
| 9. Follow up 4 to 6 weeks, or 12 months | 45 to 90 minutes | Where there was live activity we return at 4 to 6 weeks to confirm the colony is gone. Otherwise the next visit is the annual AS 3660.2 inspection that keeps the warranty alive. | Book it before we drive away, not next year. |
Timings are for a 55 to 65 lineal metre single-storey slab home. Double storey, acreage or multiple structures add half a day. See the termite treatment service page for what each method involves.
Tick this off before treatment day
The week before
The night before
On the morning
Before the crew leaves
Stop and ask if you see these
Want to know exactly how your day would run?
Tell us the address and we will map the stages against your actual house before you book.
The practical stuff nobody mentions until the morning
Parking and access. We arrive in a one tonne ute carrying a 400 to 600 litre tank. In the newer Officer and Cardinia Lakes estates the driveways are typically 3.5 metres wide with a narrow nature strip, so we usually need the driveway itself clear and one kerb space. The side access is the bigger issue. Anything narrower than about 700 mm means the barrow cannot get through and the spoil has to be carried, which adds 30 to 45 minutes. If the alfresco is fully enclosed, we may need to walk product through the house, so tell us at booking and we will bring floor protection.
Power and water. One outdoor tap and one 10 amp outlet is all we need. A 58 metre job uses roughly 290 litres of mixed emulsion, which is 290 litres of your water. On mains that is a few dollars. On tank water in the Pakenham Upper and Nar Nar Goon hills it matters, so we bring our own if you tell us.
Noise, dust and smell. Trenching is quiet. The rotary hammer is not, and it runs for the 1 to 3 hours it takes to drill the hard surfaces. It is the stage that upsets dogs, wakes toddlers and ruins video calls, so we tell you when it is starting. Dust is captured at the drill with a vacuum shroud, and the slurry is washed off the concrete rather than left to dry. Modern non-repellent termiticides are close to odourless. If you smell a strong solvent, ask what is being applied.
Pets, kids and working from home. Cats and dogs inside or off site for the day. Chooks off the treated strip until the trench is closed. Fish ponds covered. Kids can be in the house all day, they just cannot be in the working strip. The treated soil is backfilled as we go, so by the time we leave there is no exposed product anywhere on the site.
Weather, hold-ups, and what a clean site looks like
The most common delay in the Cardinia Shire is water. Officer sits on heavy clay that holds moisture for days after rain, and a soil treatment applied into a waterlogged trench does not distribute the way the label intends. From May to September we routinely move bookings by a week, at no cost, and we would rather do that than deliver a barrier we cannot stand behind. Late spring to early autumn is the reliable window.
The other three hold-ups are all avoidable. A locked side gate with nobody home stops the job dead. An unmarked irrigation line or a conduit run to a shed after handover means we stop and hand dig. And a garden bed 200 mm above the weep holes that nobody cut back turns a trenching run into a landscaping job, which adds 30 to 60 minutes of billable time.
What a clean finish looks like. The soil is back, compacted in layers and sitting at the level it started, not mounded and not left 100 mm low to slump in the first rain. Drill holes are plugged flush, in a plug colour as close to the concrete as we can get, in a straight line rather than wandering. Paving and paths are washed down. There is no spoil left on the lawn, no tarps, no offcuts and no empty containers. The meter box has a new durable notice in it. If any of that is missing, say so before the crew leaves rather than emailing on Monday.
Where the waste goes. Very little leaves the site, because the trench soil goes back into the trench. What does leave is packaging and rinsate. Containers are triple rinsed, that rinse water goes into the last section of treated trench rather than into a drain, and the empty drums are disposed of under the label and through the industry container return scheme where it is available. Nothing goes into a stormwater pit, which matters here because Officer drains into the Cardinia Creek and Toomuc Creek catchments.
When treatment day should not be happening yet
If nobody has done a full AS 3660.2 inspection of the roof void, subfloor and perimeter with a moisture meter, then treatment day is premature. A barrier installed over an active infestation inside the building treats the outside of a problem that is already indoors. In that situation the correct sequence is a targeted treatment of the live workings first, a 4 to 6 week confirmation visit, and the perimeter after. Ask for the inspection report before you accept a treatment date.
Equally, if your house is only a few years old and the durable notice shows an intact full perimeter system, you may not need a treatment day at all. Book the annual inspection instead, or read our budget page to see what each tier really buys. And if you are still deciding how many metres and stations the job involves, size it first on the how much barrier do I need page.
Treatment day questions
How long does a termite treatment take on an Officer home?
Do I need to be home for the whole day?
How loud and how messy is a termite barrier install?
What do I have to move before the crew arrives?
Are pets and children safe on treatment day?
What happens if it rains on the booked day?
Book a treatment date that suits your household
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One day, done properly, documented
Fixed price, a written scope before we start and a certificate in your hand before we leave.