Cost of chemical termite barrier in Canberra?

Seth, I am absolutely gobsmacked that you dedicated a whole of 4 sentences to the company that originally did the pest inspection. If I bought a house that was cleared of termites, to find 6 months later that in fact it did have termites I would be absolutely furious. Good to hear you have a verbal agreement from the ACTNOW boss to “make this right”. Hows that going for you? I would be more than interested for you to give updates on how you are going with this? I would actually be really interested to hear how that conversation went for you when you informed ACTNOW of the termites. Have they been out to the house to inspect it free of charge, have they offered to pay for the chemical barrier, have they offered an apology? If there is anything you should be writing about or complaining about it is the initial inspection done. Yet you don’t seem to upset about it. Why is that?
I also note that you had a fair few negative comments to make about A1 yet you were happy with their service. Forgetful of appointments, hard to contact and bad communication and yet you are happy with them? How does that work? You weren’t happy with the holes that they drilled as some have “fallen through”. Gee you are really lucky they left you some sealant so you can fix it yourself! I personally would steer well clear of a company like that.
As a plumber by trade, I get numerous people ringing up for “ballpark” figures. Do you know how hard this is to do when you don’t even know what the house looks like or exactly what you are quoting on? It is an absolute waste of time. It’s not “weird” that Amalgamated didn’t want to provide a “ballpark” figure, it’s simply unrealistic to ask someone to quote on something they cannot see. They probably get hundreds of calls from potential time wasters like yourself trying to get a cheaper price and they were smart enough and lucky enough to have only wasted 2 minutes of their time. From what I am reading about your comments, you wasted a lot of people’s time. So what! Royals gave a free quote, I bet he isn’t happy that he took the time out of his busy day to do an obligation free quote for you, to be told that another company had already started the job. Personally, I would have sent you a bill for my time. In my opinion that is just rude! By the sounds of it you not only wasted Royals time but Armageddon’s as well.
For the record, I also found that I had termites in November 2012. I called Armageddon Pest Control and was given a quote to install the Exterra baiting system. Just to let you know, Barry called back two weeks after he installed the system and I was told that the termites were eating the bait. He has called in every 2 weeks since to check and refill the bait and I was absolutely ecstatic last visit when I was advised that my termites were dead. As I had been present at each visit I witnessed the termites eating the bait, I then also visually saw for myself at the last visit, dead termites. Barry spent time talking to me about the biology and habits of termites and I now consider myself an unofficial expert on termites and am advising all my friends to get 12 monthly inspections. Just out of curiousity, are your termites dead? I would rather be in my position, with my termites being eliminated in about two months and having only spent $3200. I also have another 9 months of Armageddon monitoring my system for me. In the event more termites are found, they will be baited at no additional charge. WINNING!! My question to you Seth is, how do you know your termites have been eliminated? What proof do you have?
I also got my house sprayed at the same time and I watched him do that service. Barry asked me when the last time my house was sprayed for spiders. I told him that I hadn’t had it done in ten years. Barry was up front and honest and said that he can’t eliminate all pests in one service, especially if I haven’t had a spray done for such a long period. He said what he does is pest control, not pest elimination and that the service would eliminate 95% of the pests. I would rather deal with someone who is upfront and honest rather than people that are hard to contact, don’t return emails, forget appointments etc. Armageddon contacted me via phone for every visit, they turned up to each visit as arranged, were on time and are easily contactable via email.
To leave bad feedback for companies is just downright low. I will personally vouch for Armageddon Pest Control, I was more than happy with the service I received and will continue to use them for years to come. I cannot vouch for Amalgamated, but just because they did not give you a ballpark figure and you didn’t get the answer that you wanted, it is no reason to call a business “weird”. I strongly suggest you think about what you say regarding someone’s business before posting it online. These businesses have spent years building a reputation, something I don’t believe you would have a clue about. I think Royals, Amalgamated and Armageddon got the better end of the stick. They will definitely be better off without a customer like you.

Ok so in the end we went with A1professional pest control. Total cost for termidor barrier, as well as initial inspection and treatment of active termites was 6500. Royal pest control were also good value, 5500 for the lot (we had already started with a1 when found that out so would have been about the same over all). Definitely worth getting multiple quotations (royal are good because they do obligation free quotes). A1 professional have done most of the barrier work now, worked hard and were done in three days. Mostly good though the silicon plugs for drill holes are not great, several have fallen through. They left me with more silicone sealant though. In all I’m glad we stuck with them. They are not very good at communications–slow to reply to emails etc–but when on site were reassuring and authoritative. Gordon Yeoman is the boss, nb a1 professional is different from a1 pest control.

Worth saying that Armageddon pest control get a good write up on this site, but I wasn’t impressed: only spotted a small proportion of the active termites; recommended baiting when immediate treatment and a chemical barrier much more advisable. They also did a regular pest spray for us but were not thorough. Eg in subfloor just poked spray gun in and blasted the area near the entry. Several red backs on the other side of the subfloor unperturbed. Called them back but they just did the same again; ill have to deal with the red backs myself. Nice enough folks but slapdash.

Amalgamated pest control were weird: wouldn’t even give me a ballpark figure for how much they charge for barriers, insisted on my paying for an inspection.

As for the inspection of the house presale. That was done by actnow inspect. They also did the building inspection which included a number of significant errors. At present I have a verbal commitment from the boss to make this right, I will report back how that goes. At some stage I’m going to write all this up as there are lots of bits of advice that we did not receive as first home buyers, which would have helped us a lot.

OH, also, your termites were probably almost certainly there in August. I would definitely be having a chat to the inspection guy and the people who govern that piece of legislation.

sethlazar said :

Thanks for these replies. Am resigned to spending multiple ks but want to be sure I’m not being overcharged for what I’m getting. Happy also to have a professional do the job. Also had quote for baiting with exterra but was worried about speed of action. Altriset should kill all terms in three months… Anyone have experience with Termidor or altriset barriers?

We have the exterra bait system, the thing about that is that it kills the nest, not just the termites that hit the barrier.

Thanks for these replies. Am resigned to spending multiple ks but want to be sure I’m not being overcharged for what I’m getting. Happy also to have a professional do the job. Also had quote for baiting with exterra but was worried about speed of action. Altriset should kill all terms in three months… Anyone have experience with Termidor or altriset barriers?

We put in a permanent baiting system fitted by Armageddon Pest Control. Pretty happy with it so far and was a little over 3G fitted.

I too wondered about the cost but weighed it up against the cost of a house & it is cheap.

Buy a container of Termidor off eBay for under $100, dig a trench around your house, pour it in and save yourself a packet.