Termite Protection for Builders: AS 3660 in NSW

Three parts, and which one applies depends entirely on what stage the building's at, not what kind of termite problem you're picturing.

Most jobs on a builder's book are AS 3660.1, start to finish. The rest of this page works through what that means on site, then covers where .2 and .3 turn up in a builder's world when a job isn't a clean new build.

AS 3660.1 governs termite management systems for new building work: what gets installed, at what stage, and to what standard, before a structure exists to protect. It recognises physical barriers, chemical barriers, and combined systems where both work together on the same build, and it sets a minimum inspection zone, 75mm, around the accessible perimeter of the structure.

That zone is the point of the whole exercise. It has to stay visible after handover, not built over with paving or buried under a garden bed. A termite forced to cross open, inspectable ground can be found. One with a hidden run straight into the frame can't. Every requirement in AS 3660.1 comes back to that single idea, whether it's the barrier itself or the site management around it.

The standard also covers precautions during and after construction, because a system installed correctly at pre-pour stage can still be compromised by later trades if nobody's watching for that risk. Excavation for a garden bed, a path poured across the inspection zone, backfill that buries a barrier's edge: any of it can undo a compliant install without anyone realising until an inspection finds the gap. I've set out the inspection zone, the barrier types, and those site precautions in more detail here: AS 3660.1 explained for new construction.

On my jobs, AS 3660.1 compliance comes down to two systems, and some builds use both together rather than one or the other.

A physical barrier, I install TermSeal, is two visits on two different sides of the pour. Collars go on first, fitted around every pipe and service penetration coming through the slab, timed to plumbing and drainage rough-in with the concrete truck still weeks off. That visit has a hard deadline: once the slab's down, there's no fitting a collar around a penetration that's already been poured over. Sheeting is the second visit, once the slab's down and there's an exposed edge to bond to, closing off the join and any remaining penetrations before the frame goes up around it. Both visits happen during the build. What closes the window for good isn't the pour, it's the slab edge becoming inaccessible: once cladding, render or landscaping covers it, there's no clean exposed edge left to bond sheeting to, which is why a physical barrier can't be retrofitted to a finished house.

A chemical barrier, Termidor in my case, is a soil treatment, and it's more forgiving on timing. It can go in pre-pour or later, which makes it the fallback if a physical barrier's install window gets missed on a tight programme, or the option of choice if the build simply doesn't call for a physical system.

Book me in at the substrate stage, before penetrations get covered over, and the barrier work runs on the build's own schedule instead of chasing a gap afterward. What the warranty covers and how it's structured is on the pre-construction termite barrier page.

AS 3660.1 doesn't operate in isolation. The National Construction Code references it directly, in Volume 2's Housing Provisions, Part 3.4, as the accepted way to meet the legal requirement for termite risk management on new residential work in NSW. Install a system in accordance with AS 3660.1 and the Code's termite provision is satisfied. That's the Deemed-to-Satisfy pathway, and it's the one almost every residential job in Sydney runs on rather than a bespoke performance solution.

That Part 3.4 numbering is current under NCC 2022, the edition NSW builds still run on. NSW doesn't move to NCC 2025 until 1 May 2027, so the clause reference above is the right one for any build under way now or starting in the next year or so. Worth a re-check against the newer edition once that date passes.

What that means for a site supervisor: the standard is the technical spec, the Code is the legal requirement sitting behind it, and a certifier checking the build at handover wants evidence the first one was followed to close out the second. Get that sequence backwards, chase the certificate before the install's actually compliant, and you're solving the wrong problem first. Where that reference sits in the Code, and what a compliance package needs to include at handover, is covered in full here: Builder-side termite protection under NCC Part 3.4.

Two paperwork milestones on a job like this, and they don't land together.

Invoicing happens off the back of completed work, standard practice once the collars or sheeting are in. The compliance certificate is a separate milestone entirely. I issue it near project completion, requested separately from the invoice, and on a longer build programme that can put months between the two. That gap is normal. If a certifier, a bank, or a buyer's solicitor is chasing the certificate partway through the build, it isn't overdue, it just isn't due yet, and chasing it early won't make the paperwork exist any sooner than the build allows.

What the certificate needs to contain, and who actually ends up asking for it, is covered here: Termite protection certificate for new builds.

Not every job on a builder's book is a clean new slab. A renovation on a house that's already standing, or a live termite find turning up during demolition or strip-out: either one sits under AS 3660.2, not .1. Once a building exists, its ongoing termite management, and treatment if live activity turns up, is governed by the existing-buildings part of the standard, not the new-construction one.

AS 3660.2 carries its own trigger, one most builders don't need in technical detail but should recognise when it applies. If an inspection during a renovation turns up live termites of economic significance, the standard requires a Termite Management Plan before any treatment starts, not a quote. What that document contains, and how it differs from the pricing proposal that follows it, is explained here: Termite Management Plans explained.

AS 3660.3 is narrower again: assessment criteria for a system already in the ground. It comes up at due diligence on an older property, or on a site where nobody currently on the job knows what protection, if any, was installed years earlier. That's a different question again, not what to install or how to treat, but whether what's already there still works.

On a renovation or resale job, that assessment starts with the paperwork, not the ground: whether a durable notice is in the meter box, whether a certificate or warranty document exists anywhere. Older properties often have neither, whatever was installed having predated both the current NCC notice requirement and whoever currently owns the file. Where the paper trail is gone, the assessment falls back to what's physically checkable: the inspection zone around the slab edge, whether it's still intact and visible, and any sign of an old physical barrier at that edge. Then the thermal imaging camera and moisture meter, the same tools I run on any inspection, at the same points. None of that proves what was installed years ago to the standard a certificate would. It tells a builder, or a buyer's solicitor, whether there's protection there at all, and whether it's still doing anything.

What's the difference between AS 3660.1 and AS 3660.2?
AS 3660.1 covers termite management systems installed during new construction, before or as the building goes up. AS 3660.2 covers everything that happens once a building already exists: ongoing inspection, management, and treatment. If the slab isn't poured yet, you're working to .1. If the building's standing, you're in .2.

Does AS 3660.1 apply to a renovation or an extension?
Not to the existing structure. AS 3660.1 is written for new building work. A renovation or extension on a house that's already standing falls under AS 3660.2, even though a new element within that job, a new slab for an extension, for example, might still need its own AS 3660.1 protection installed as part of that work.

Can a physical barrier go in on a house that's already built?
No. A product like TermSeal goes in during construction: collars before the pour, sheeting once the slab is down and the edge is still exposed. What closes the window is the slab edge being covered over by cladding, render or landscaping, leaving nothing to bond to. A chemical barrier is the option still available on an existing structure.

What does the compliance certificate actually cover?
It confirms the termite management system was installed to AS 3660.1, by whom, and to what specification. It's requested separately from the job invoice and issued near project completion, which is standard, not a delay.

How long does a termite management system need to stay maintained to keep its compliance current?
For a TermSeal physical barrier, the 50-year warranty holds as long as annual inspections continue. Compliance at handover is a point-in-time confirmation. Ongoing protection depends on the inspection schedule being kept up afterward.

If you're scheduling termite protection into a new build, get me booked at the substrate stage, before the concrete truck is on the schedule. I install both physical and chemical barriers to AS 3660.1 across Sydney, and I work to your site programme rather than asking you to work around mine.

Call 0405 790 927 to lock in a pre-pour date, or to talk through what a specific build needs before you commit to a system.