Why Borer Wise exists, and how it works for you

A site that starts with the answer

Most people find us with a question, not a booking: are these holes active, does a fogger work, what's in the bottle at the hardware store. So the site is built around answers first. Every guide opens with a direct reply, and the answers library covers the questions that come up once a treatment is on the table, from kerosene to insurance.

Some of those answers say "do it yourself". A small shed, a piece of furniture, a sanded floor: those are often DIY jobs, and we say so. When a subfloor is low, a roof space is hot and wired, or borer is in several places at once, the guides say that too. You get to decide with the facts in front of you.

What a borer visit covers

A borer visit covers the parts of the house where borer lives: the subfloor, the roof space, finished timber such as floors, skirtings and joinery, and furniture if you ask. The technician checks for active borer, notes damp and damage, and quotes in writing. Treatment uses residual products on bare timber and injection for flight holes in painted or varnished timber.

• Subfloor treatment: piles, bearers, joists and board undersides
• Roof space treatment: rafters, ceiling joists and sarking
• Flight-hole injection: painted, varnished or polished timber
• Furniture, floors and exterior timber

What we leave to others

Some things sit outside a borer visit, and it's better to be clear about them up front. Building repairs, such as replacing soft joists, boards or piles, are work for a builder, quoted separately. Pre-purchase building reports are a different service. Fumigation isn't offered. Suspected exotic termites are a biosecurity matter: they're reported to MPI on 0800 80 99 66, not treated as borer.

The rules the work follows

Borer products are hazardous substances under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996, and each carries an HSNO approval with controls attached, which you can look up in the EPA's database. The label sets how it's applied, what protective gear is used and how long people and pets stay out.

People applying certain pest control substances commercially must hold a set qualification, or work under the guidance of someone who does, under the EPA's Hazardous Property Controls Notice.

Repairs fall under the Building Act 2004: like-for-like repair is generally exempt from consent, but substantial structural replacement isn't. For rentals, the Residential Tenancies Act makes borer a repair matter for the landlord. Our borer products page and landlord guide explain the detail.

Borer under the floor or in the roof space? Get a written quote

How prices are handled

Prices on this site are guide ranges from published Auckland price lists, set out on the borer treatment cost page next to DIY shelf prices. Your own price comes in writing after the technician has seen the timber, because size, access, insulation and the extent of the borer all change it. Check that the quote states the areas, the product and whether GST is included.

What we won't do

We won't invent things to look bigger. There are no made-up reviews, ratings, prizes, staff profiles, trading history or job photos on this site, and the photos of beetles and holes are credited photographs from public collections. We won't claim a licence or membership that can't be checked. And we won't tell you to treat borer that's long dead.

Where we work

Visits are arranged across Auckland, from the Hibiscus Coast to Papakura and from Titirangi to Howick. Every visit happens at your property. There's no shop or office to visit. The borer by suburb pages describe what borer looks like in different parts of Auckland, from villa subfloors in Grey Lynn to damp bush sites in Titirangi.

The arrangement behind the service

Borer Wise runs this site, takes your call and arranges the visit; the treatment itself is carried out by a local operator, and it's only fair you know how that works. Each borer job is priced and done by an independent Auckland borer operator that Borer Wise works with, and your enquiry is sent directly to that operator. One operator handles each enquiry, so you won't be passed around a list. Borer Wise earns a fee from that operator for enquiries that become paid jobs. That doesn't change what the guides say. How it works explains the steps from your first call to the treatment day.