Brisbane has termites. Lots of them. Coptotermes acinaciformis, mostly, with a healthy supporting cast of other species depending on which suburb you’re in. Most homeowners know to worry about their house. Fewer people think about their shed until they open the door one Saturday and find a structural timber that’s gone hollow.

I’ve inspected enough termite-eaten sheds over the years to take this seriously. Let me walk through what actually protects a shed from termites in Brisbane, what’s marketing fluff, and what to do if you find termites in something you’ve already built.

Why sheds are at higher risk than houses

Two reasons.

First, sheds are usually outside the termite protection envelope of the main house. When your house was built, it likely had pre-construction termite protection installed: chemical barriers, physical barriers like Termimesh, or steel ant-caps under the bearers. The shed, particularly if it was added later, often doesn’t have any of these.

Second, sheds tend to accumulate the things termites love. Damp ground from leaky gutters. Leaning timber against the wall. Stored cardboard. Mulched garden beds right up against the shed wall. Stack of firewood next to the corner post. Each of these is a termite invitation, and most shed owners don’t think twice about them.

Brisbane’s climate is also the issue. Subtropical, humid, with soil temperatures that stay warm year-round. Termites are active essentially 12 months of the year. There’s no winter slowdown the way there might be in Melbourne.

What termite protection actually means for a shed

The protection methods break down into a few categories.

Site preparation. Before you build, removing all timber waste, tree stumps, and organic material from the shed footprint matters more than anything else you’ll do. A buried tree stump 1 metre from your shed is a termite city waiting to happen.

Slab edge protection. If you’ve got a concrete slab shed, the slab edge is the most common termite entry point. They build mud tubes up the side of the slab and into the timber bottom plate. A proper slab edge inspection zone, where the bottom 100mm of the slab is visible and unencumbered, lets you spot mud tubes early. Most shed owners cover the slab edge with garden bed, mulch, or paving. Don’t.

Chemical barriers. Sprayed chemical barriers around a shed slab can be effective. They generally need re-application every 5-10 years depending on the product and conditions. Cost is real and ongoing. For a small backyard shed it’s often not worth it. For a workshop shed where the timber framing is structural, it usually is.

Physical barriers. Steel ant-caps on stumps for elevated sheds, or stainless mesh systems under and around slabs, are physical barriers that don’t degrade. More expensive upfront. No ongoing cost beyond inspection. For a permanent shed I’d usually recommend physical over chemical.

Termite bait stations. In-ground bait stations placed around the perimeter at intervals can detect and eliminate termite colonies before they reach the shed. These need monitoring by a licensed pest controller, typically every 3-6 months. For a high-value shed with valuable contents, the ongoing cost is justified.

What I do for my own sheds

For the shed I built five years ago, the protection chain looks like this.

The slab has a 100mm exposed edge all the way round. No mulch, no plants, no paving against it. The edge gets visually inspected every couple of months when I’m doing yard work.

The timber framing on the inside doesn’t touch the slab directly. There’s a damp-proof membrane, then a steel ant-cap detail at the bottom plate, then the timber. Termites would have to mud tube around the ant-cap to reach the timber. Possible. Visible.

There’s a chemical perimeter barrier that was reapplied 18 months ago. Costs me about $400 every 5-7 years. Not nothing, but not a lot relative to the risk.

The garden beds nearest the shed start 1 metre from the slab edge. I know that’s not always practical, but the distance matters. Garden mulch is a termite welcome mat. Putting it right against the shed is asking for trouble.

I check the inside of the shed quarterly. Look for mud tubes on the inside of the walls, the bottom of the timber bottom plate, and any place where damp accumulates. Five minutes per inspection. Worth doing.

What doesn’t really protect against termites

A few things I see marketed that don’t do as much as people think.

Treated pine framing. Helpful, but not termite-proof. H3 treated pine resists Subterranean termites for many years, but not indefinitely, and the cut ends of any piece you’ve worked are essentially untreated. H4 is better. H5 is reserved for structural in-ground applications. Most shed framing is H2 or H3, which is fine for the main structure but not a substitute for site-level protection.

Steel framing. Solves the termite problem for the frame itself, but termites still attack any timber lining, flooring, or contents inside the shed. They don’t eat steel but they happily go around it.

Concrete slab alone. A slab is a barrier to direct soil contact, but termites can travel around the slab edge, through cracks in the slab, or up plumbing penetrations. The slab is part of the solution, not the whole answer.

Random spraying with retail termite chemicals. Some retail products work. Most of them don’t work for long, and applying them yourself usually doesn’t put the chemical where it needs to be. If you’re going to do chemical protection, get a licensed operator.

What to do if you find termites

Don’t panic. Don’t smash open the timber to see how bad it is, because that disturbs the colony and may cause it to retreat and reappear elsewhere on the property. Don’t spray with anything.

Call a licensed pest controller, Australian Standards compliant, and get an inspection within a week. The good ones will identify the species, locate the colony nest if possible, and recommend treatment based on what’s actually there. The treatment will typically involve baiting to eliminate the colony, then a barrier treatment to prevent re-entry.

The cost of professional treatment is typically $1,500-$4,000 depending on the property scope. Cheaper than rebuilding the shed.

Working smarter with technology

One thing that’s changed in the last few years is the availability of low-cost termite monitoring sensors. Small wireless devices that detect movement or moisture in known termite-risk zones. The data goes to a phone app. Not a substitute for visual inspection, but a useful supplement, particularly for sheds that don’t get visited often.

A few of the smarter pest control operators are using AI-driven inspection workflows. They photograph the shed perimeter, the imagery gets analysed for early signs of mud tubes or moisture patterns, and they flag anything worth a closer look. The technology is improving fast. Some smaller pest control businesses in Queensland are working with consultants like Team400 to integrate this kind of capability into their service offerings, which keeps the price competitive while improving accuracy.

It’s not magic. The human inspector still matters. But the technology is making the human inspector faster and more accurate, which matters when termite damage is the kind of thing that benefits from being caught early.

Cost-benefit thinking

For a backyard shed worth $5,000 with contents worth maybe another $3,000:

• Initial physical protection: $300-$600 if added during build
• Annual inspection by you: free, 30 mins total per year
• Professional inspection every 2-3 years: $200-$350
• Total over 10 years: under $1,500

Compared to:

• Replacing a termite-damaged shed: $5,000+ plus contents
• Plus the disruption, the contents loss, the time

The case for protection is obvious for any shed that holds anything valuable. For a $2,000 cheap shed holding a lawnmower and some pool toys, you can argue the maths is closer. For a workshop with $20,000 of tools, you can’t.

What to ask when you’re getting a shed quoted

Three questions for the shed company:

1. What termite protection is included as standard?
2. What additional protection would you recommend for this site, and how much?
3. Who’s the pest controller you’d use for ongoing inspection?

A company that has good answers to all three has thought about this before. A company that shrugs hasn’t.

Termite damage is preventable. It just requires not pretending the problem doesn’t exist. Brisbane in particular doesn’t reward optimism about termites.