TL;DR: AS 3660 termite protection is a risk management system, not a termite-proof house. If the primary building elements on your job can be eaten, the NCC makes you install a system to AS 3660.1, keep an inspection zone somebody can actually see, fix a durable notice in a prominent spot like the meter box, and hand over a certificate naming the product, the installer, the date and the recommended inspection interval. The three things that bite builders at handover are a rendered-over slab edge, a plumbing penetration cut after the barrier went in, and a missing installer certificate. None of those are termite problems. They are sequencing and paperwork problems, and they are yours.

AS 3660 termite protection is one of the cheapest line items on a residential build and one of the most common reasons a building surveyor holds up a final inspection. The work itself takes a pest technician half a day. The trouble comes from everything that happens around it: a landscaper who lifts the ground level 100mm, a renderer who takes the finish down past the slab edge, a plumber who cores a new penetration three weeks after the barrier was signed off. By the time the certifier asks for the certificate at handover, the system on the ground no longer matches the system on the paperwork, and you are the one holding the bag.

This is the builder's version of AS 3660. What has to go in, what the code actually asks for, where the defects show up, and exactly which documents get requested before you get your occupancy paperwork.

What AS 3660 is, and what it is not

AS 3660 is the Australian Standard for termite management. It comes in three parts, and the part numbers matter when you are reading a certificate:

• AS 3660.1 (2014 edition) covers new building work. This is the one your build is assessed against.
• AS 3660.2 (2017 edition) covers management in and around existing buildings, so renovations, extensions and remedial work.
• AS 3660.3 (2014 edition) is the assessment criteria used to test whether a proprietary system qualifies in the first place.

Confirm which editions are called up by the NCC edition your building permit was issued under, because the clause numbering shifted at NCC 2022 and older specifications on plans often still quote the previous structure. The NCC itself is free to read online at ncc.abcb.gov.au, which is worth knowing because the standard is not: AS 3660.1 has to be bought through Standards Australia or accessed through a subscription.

Here is the mental model that fixes most of the confusion. Nothing in AS 3660 stops termites. The standard uses the words "termite management system" deliberately. A compliant system is designed to block concealed entry and force termites out into the open where a person doing an inspection can see them. That is why the inspection zone and the inspection regime are not optional extras bolted onto the barrier. They are half the system. A perfect barrier with a rendered-over slab edge is not a compliant install, it is a blind spot with a certificate attached.

When AS 3660 termite protection is required, and when it is not

The NCC requirement hangs on two conditions. First, are the primary building elements susceptible to termite attack? Primary building elements are the ones doing structural work: loadbearing members, bracing, roof and floor framing, and anything else the structure relies on. Second, is the site in an area with a meaningful incidence of subterranean termites?

That gives you the exemptions builders actually use:

• Steel frame, or concrete and masonry structure. If nothing in the primary structure can be eaten, the NCC requirement for a management system does not apply.
• Naturally termite-resistant timber, from the species listed in the standard.
• Preservative-treated timber to the right hazard class under AS 1604. For framing in a building envelope, that is H2, or H2-S for use south of the Tropic of Capricorn. This is where AS 1684 and AS 3660 meet on your job: your frame specification is doing termite duty as well as structural duty, and a substitution of untreated timber by a supplier quietly breaks your compliance path.
• Low-incidence areas designated by the appropriate authority. Do not assume this one from memory or from what the last job did. Ask your building surveyor in writing, per site.

Two catches worth knowing before you price a steel frame as a way out of the whole thing. The code protects primary elements. Skirtings, architraves, door jambs, joinery carcasses and kitchen cabinetry are not primary elements, so a steel-framed house with no management system can still be eaten out through the fitout, and the owner will ring you about it. And most owners read "termite protection" as a guarantee. Put the distinction in writing at contract stage rather than at the point of a claim.

Physical barriers: what goes in, and where they fail

Physical systems work by presenting termites with a material they cannot get through or around without coming out into the open. The common ones on Australian residential jobs:

• Stainless steel woven mesh, bonded or clamped at penetrations, around the slab perimeter, and to service entries. Installed by accredited installers only, because the accreditation is what backs the warranty.
• Graded stone, a crushed aggregate with a tightly controlled particle size, packed so the gaps are too small for termites to pass and the grains too big to shift. Used at perimeters and around penetrations.
• Sheet and blanket products, including polymer sheeting and products impregnated with a termiticide. These sit in a middle category: physical in form, chemical in action, and certified under AS 3660.3 as a system rather than as either one alone.
• The slab itself, where a monolithic slab designed and constructed to AS 2870 with sealed penetrations limits concealed access. A slab is not a barrier on its own. It is one part of a system that still needs an exposed edge and treated penetrations.

Where physical systems fail is almost never the product. It is the joins. Penetration collars missed on a late plumbing change, mesh cut and not re-sealed by an electrician chasing a conduit, a pergola post or an air-conditioner slab poured hard against the wall after the barrier was certified, timber form boards left in the ground, offcuts and stakes buried in the fill. Every one of those is a bridge, and every one of those happens after the installer has left site.

Chemical barriers: registered product, licensed installer, dated life

A chemical system creates a treated soil zone that termites will not cross, either under the slab before the pour or around the perimeter after the external works are done.

Three things have to be true, and a certifier will check all three:

1. The termiticide is registered with the APVMA for that use. Not a similar product, not an off-label use. The registered label is the legal document that sets the rate, the method and the life expectancy.
2. The installer holds the right state licence. Pest management licensing is state based, so a technician's ticket from one state is not automatically valid in another.
3. The life expectancy is recorded, because a chemical zone is a consumable. Hand-sprayed soil treatments need replenishment on a cycle set by the label, and the owner needs to know the date.

If the design allows it, a reticulation system is worth the extra at slab stage. A pipe network laid under and around the slab lets a technician re-charge the soil zone years later without excavating a driveway. It costs more on day one and it removes the argument in year eight about who pays to dig up the paving.

One sequencing trap specific to chemical work: a perimeter zone applied before landscaping is a zone that gets dug out by the landscaper. Water is the other one. A downpipe discharging at the perimeter, or an irrigation line running along the slab edge, will wash a treated zone out well before its label life.

The 75mm inspection zone, and the finish that buries it

This is the single most common termite defect on an Australian residential build, and it is caused by the render crew, not the pest crew.

Where the slab edge is used as the inspection zone, AS 3660.1 requires the exposed vertical face of the slab to be a minimum of 75mm and visible. That means:

• Render, cladding, tiling or a set finish must stop above the exposed edge, not run down over it.
• Finished ground levels, paving, decking and garden beds must sit low enough to keep that 75mm visible after landscaping, not just at frame stage.
• Weep holes stay clear. Paving mortared up over a course of weep holes closes the inspection zone and the drainage path in one hit.

If the design genuinely will not allow an exposed edge, and plenty of contemporary flush-finish details will not, then you need an alternative documented before the slab is poured: a perimeter chemical zone, a sheet or mesh barrier carried up the edge, or termite-resistant construction throughout. What you cannot do is pour the slab, render past the edge, and sort it out later. Fixing it later means cutting the finish off a completed house.

Put a hold point in your program between the slab edge set-out and the render start, and make the surveyor's inspection the thing that releases it. That is a scheduling decision, not a trade decision, which is why it belongs in your project management software with a dependency on it rather than in somebody's head.

Inspection access on suspended floors and subfloors

Slab-on-ground is the easy case. A suspended floor is where access gets designed out.

AS 3660.1 works to a minimum crawl space of about 400mm under the lowest timber member so a person can get under and look. You want that clearance continuous, with a practical access hatch, and with enough room at the perimeter to sight the piers and bearers rather than just the middle of the floor. Check the figure against the edition of the standard your permit calls up before you set your floor level, because this is a number you cannot change after the bearers are on.

Things that quietly destroy subfloor access: a fill level raised during siteworks, plumbing and ducting run at bearer height across the crawl path, and a deck or terrace built hard against the building with no way under. If an inspector cannot get eyes on the structure, the system is not doing its job, no matter what the product data sheet says.

The durable notice: four things it has to say

The NCC requires a durable notice permanently fixed to the building in a prominent location, typically inside the electrical meter box or on the inside face of a kitchen cupboard door. It has to state four things:

1. The termite management system used.
2. The date of installation.
3. Where a chemical is used, its life expectancy as stated on the registered label. Note the NCC clause has historically referred to the National Registration Authority, which is now the APVMA.
4. The installer's or manufacturer's recommendations for the scope and frequency of future inspections.

Two practical notes. A printed sticker in a meter box that fades to blank in two summers is not durable, and it is your name on the build when a future owner finds an empty label. Ask the installer for a metal or engraved plate, or a UV-stable laminate. And if the system is a combination, a mesh at penetrations plus a perimeter chemical, the notice has to describe the whole system and the shortest life expectancy in it, not just the headline product.

The certification paperwork that gets asked for at handover

Here is the pack your building surveyor will want before they will sign off, and the pack the owner's conveyancer will want at settlement. Collect it when the work happens, not the week before handover.

• Termite management certificate of installation from the installer, naming the system, the areas treated, the date, the installer and their licence number, and for a chemical system the product, its APVMA registration number, the concentration and the volume applied.
• The manufacturer's warranty, and a clear read on what it covers. Product warranty and installation warranty are two different documents with two different expiry dates, and accredited-installer systems usually require both.
• Photographs of the install, especially under-slab work and penetration detailing, taken before the pour. This is the cheapest insurance on the list. Once the slab is down, the only evidence that the mesh was correctly sealed at fourteen penetrations is a photo with a date on it.
• Evidence of the durable notice, fixed and legible, photographed in place.
• The recommended inspection regime handed to the owner, with their acknowledgement in writing that they received it.

That last one is the difference between a maintenance dispute and a defect claim. AS 3660 expects ongoing competent inspections, commonly at least annually and more often on high-risk sites, and an owner who was never told cannot have failed to do it. Get a signature on the handover pack.

Your statutory exposure runs well past practical completion, and the length depends on your state. In New South Wales the statutory warranties under the Home Building Act 1989 run six years for a major defect and two years otherwise. In Victoria, section 134 of the Building Act 1993 caps building actions at ten years from the occupancy permit. Termite damage itself is usually excluded from insurance. The claim that reaches you is not "termites got in", it is "the system was not compliant", and the certificate and the photographs are what answer it.

Where termite works sits in your program

Sequenced properly, termite management touches your program in four places, and three of them are hold points:

1. Design and quote. The system is chosen and drawn before the permit application, because the surveyor assesses it as part of the documentation. It also has to be a line item in your estimate, not an allowance you hope covers it.
2. Pre-pour. Under-slab barriers, penetration collars, reticulation pipe. Hold point: photographs and the installer's sign-off before the concrete truck is booked.
3. Post-slab, pre-finish. Hold point: the 75mm exposed edge confirmed before render, cladding or tiling starts.
4. After external works. Perimeter treatment goes in after paving, decks and landscaping have set the finished ground level. Hold point: durable notice fixed and certificate issued before you request the final inspection.

And one standing rule: any penetration cut after certification sends the installer back. A new floor waste, a re-routed gas line, a retro-fitted conduit. It is a short call and a small re-certification fee, and it is the thing nobody thinks to do because the pest work feels finished.

Pricing it into the quote, including GST

Do not carry a price from a job two years ago. Termite system cost moves with the slab perimeter, the number of penetrations, the system type and your region, and any range printed in an article like this one would be out of date before you read it. Get a per-job quote from your installer against the actual slab set-out.

What you can control is how it lands in your numbers. Price the system as its own line, not buried in "sundries", so a variation that adds penetrations can be charged. Keep the re-certification callback as a named contingency rather than absorbing it. And get the GST treatment right: your installer's invoice includes GST, you claim the credit if you are registered, and your estimate should carry the ex-GST cost with GST applied once at the total. Adding GST at the line and again at the summary is a quick way to quote yourself out of a job, and it is one of the more common arithmetic errors we see in spreadsheet-built quotes. If you are rebuilding how you price jobs, the estimating software comparison walks through how the tax handling differs between the options.

Frequently asked questions

Does a concrete slab count as termite protection on its own?
No. A monolithic slab designed and constructed to AS 2870 limits concealed access and forms part of a system, but on its own it is not a compliant termite management system. You still need penetrations treated and an inspection zone, usually the exposed slab edge, and in most cases a perimeter physical or chemical barrier as well.

If I build a steel-framed house, do I need anything at all?
Usually not for the NCC requirement, because the primary building elements are not susceptible. Confirm it with your building surveyor in writing for that specific site, and be clear with the owner that the fitout, the joinery, the skirtings and the door jambs, is not protected by the frame material. Plenty of steel-framed houses have had cabinetry eaten.

Who is allowed to install a termite management system?
For chemical work, a pest management technician licensed in your state, applying an APVMA-registered product per its label. For proprietary physical systems, an installer accredited by that manufacturer, because the accreditation is what makes the warranty valid. Your certifier will check both the licence and the accreditation against the certificate.

How often does the system need to be inspected after handover?
AS 3660 expects ongoing competent inspection, commonly at least once a year and more often on high-risk sites. The exact interval comes from the installer's or manufacturer's recommendation, and that recommendation is one of the four things the durable notice has to state. Give the owner the regime in writing at handover and keep the signed acknowledgement.

A plumber cut a new penetration after the barrier was certified. Do I really need to call the installer back?
Yes. An untreated penetration is a concealed entry path straight past the system, and your certificate no longer describes what is on the ground. Get it treated and get the certificate updated or supplemented. It is a short callback, and it is far cheaper than the conversation about who pays for the structural repair in year four.

The part a tool can actually help with

Nothing in this article is hard to do. It is hard to remember, across four hold points, three trades who can each destroy the work of another, and a document pack assembled over six months that gets asked for on one afternoon.

That is what Built Simple is for. Put the termite hold points on the schedule as dependencies rather than as reminders, store the pre-pour photographs and the installer certificate against the job so the handover pack builds itself, and keep the system line item in the estimate where a variation can find it. The mobile app is a free download on iOS and Android, with all 45 calculators and no signup needed to use them, so you can try it on the ute before you decide anything. If you just want to test drive the calculators first, the stair calculator is a fair sample of how they work.

More building. Less admin.

Related: Home warranty insurance Victoria: what domestic building insurance changes about your quoting and your job admin