Termatrac & Borescope

Advanced Inspection Equipment

Every Northern Rock termite inspection starts the same way: a technician, a torch, a sounding tool and a methodical walk through the property, inside and out. That visual inspection is the job, and on most properties it answers the question.

Sometimes it doesn’t. A wall sounds hollow with no obvious cause. A moisture reading has no plumbing to explain it. A property has a history and the owner needs more than an opinion. That’s when our technicians bring out the Termatrac and the borescope, and there’s no additional charge when they do.

How We Use It

How the Tools Work Together

No single tool gives you the whole picture, and any inspector who tells you their gadget does is selling the gadget. The visual inspection tells us where to look, and the equipment is what we use when we get there.

Visual inspection and sounding

Every inspection starts here: accessible timbers, entry points, moisture sources, the perimeter, the roof void and the yard.

Termatrac iTraker: moisture and radar

One hand-held unit with two jobs. Its moisture meter measures the conditions that make a property attractive to termites, and its radar tells us whether there's movement behind the surface, on the areas the inspection has flagged.

Borescope

A small camera on a flexible cable, used where a finding warrants a look inside and access allows it: a wall cavity, a sub-floor void or a hollow section of timber.

Written report

Findings documented with photos and readings, risks ranked, recommendations specific, within 24 to 48 hours.

The local advantage

What Happens When Something Shows Up

A reading is where the job starts, not where it ends.

We check it against the house

Darwin homes behave differently from homes down south. Roof voids heat up hard in the build-up, bathrooms and wet areas hold moisture, and air-conditioners, ceiling fans and passing traffic all create movement. Our technicians have been inspecting Top End homes since 2008, so when the Termatrac or moisture meter flags something, the first question is whether it fits what that part of the house normally does.

We confirm before we conclude

If a reading doesn't have an ordinary explanation, we go looking. That might mean a borescope through a small access point to see inside a wall cavity, a second reading from a different position, or a closer visual check of the timber around it. We don't put a finding in your report until we're confident in it, and if we can't be sure, we'll tell you exactly that and what we recommend next.

We keep the readings for next time

Every Northern Rock technician using the Termatrac has completed the manufacturer's training course and exam. The readings they take also become a baseline for your property, so if we treat, we can come back and compare before and after rather than relying on memory.

Deliverables

What You Get on Every Job

The right tool for the question, at no extra cost.

No extra charge

The Termatrac and the borescope are included in our termite inspections and used wherever the property gives us a reason. There’s no additional charge when they come out.

Answers without cutting holes

The Termatrac reads through a wall surface without touching or marking it. A hollow-sounding wall could be old damage from termites that left years ago, or an active nest behind the plasterboard, and the Termatrac is how we tell them apart without cutting a hole to look.

Readings and images in your report

Termatrac moisture and activity readings are recorded as graphs, and borescope images go into your written report, delivered within 24 to 48 hours.

A baseline before treatment, a check after 30 days

Before we treat, we record the readings at the affected areas. At the follow-up inspection after 30 days we check the same points again for activity and moisture, and use the borescope to double-check the workings. You get a documented comparison, not a verbal assurance.

Inspection Equipment Questions

Does Northern Rock charge extra for the Termatrac or the borescope?

No. At Northern Rock Pest Control, the Termatrac and the borescope are included in every termite inspection and used wherever the property gives us a reason to use them. Thermal imaging is the exception: it’s a separate service, priced separately, because it’s a full scan of the property rather than a check on a specific area.

What is a Termatrac?

A Termatrac is a hand-held unit Northern Rock’s technicians use on termite inspections. Ours is a Termatrac iTraker, which combines a radar and a moisture meter in one unit. The radar reads through a wall surface without touching or marking it and reports movement on the other side, and the moisture meter measures the moisture content of the wall or timber at the same point.

Can a Termatrac see termites through a wall?

It detects movement behind the surface, which is not quite the same thing. A Termatrac won’t tell you the species or show you a picture. What it does is tell a Northern Rock technician whether something is active behind that particular section of wall, which is usually the question the owner actually wants answered.

Does a Termatrac damage the wall?

No. The Termatrac is held against the surface and moved slowly across it. Nothing is drilled, cut or marked.

What is a borescope used for in a termite inspection?

A borescope is a small camera on a flexible cable. Northern Rock uses one to see inside a wall cavity, a sub-floor void or a hollow section of timber, through an existing access point or a small hole where the owner has agreed to one. It’s the only tool we carry that actually looks inside the wall rather than reading through it: where the radar tells us something is moving, a borescope can show us what.

Will you need to drill a hole for the borescope?

Often not. Existing access points, service holes and sub-floor openings are usually enough. Where a hole genuinely is the only way to answer a question, Northern Rock asks the owner first and gets it in writing. We don’t drill, cut or dismantle anything without written consent.

Does Northern Rock’s Termatrac have a thermal camera?

No. Ours is the radar and moisture unit. Northern Rock runs thermal imaging as a separate service with a dedicated FLIR E8 Pro camera, because a proper thermal scan covers the whole property rather than one spot on a wall.

Why not use the equipment on every part of the house?

Because it would take a full day and tell you very little. These are targeted tools. Pointing a radar unit at every square metre of a house produces a mountain of readings and no useful conclusion. The visual inspection tells Northern Rock’s technicians where to look, and the equipment is what we use when we get there.

Buying a Property? Get a Pre-Purchase Inspection First

Before you sign on a Top End property, get a pre-purchase termite inspection: the same equipment and technicians, with a written report to AS 4349.3 you can take to settlement.