Termite Barrier Installation Services WA 2026 - Get Quotes

Termite Risk in Western Australia

Subterranean termites live in a nest below ground and travel out through soil to find timber, which is why the risk to a house has almost nothing to do with what you can see around it. On the Swan Coastal Plain the sand is loose, well drained and easy to move through, so a colony can forage over a considerable distance without ever surfacing. That combination of soil and a long warm season is what puts most of the Perth metropolitan area in a high hazard category. The pest control guide for WA covers the broader picture of household pests in this state. Understanding that the colony is usually nowhere near the house is what makes the perimeter approach make sense. Treating the garden alone achieves very little when the nest is two streets away.

Two groups do most of the structural damage here. Coptotermes acinaciformis does more structural damage than any other termite in the country and is thoroughly at home in Perth, with nests sited under stumps, in root crowns and now and then inside the building it is eating. Schedorhinotermes species are also common in the metropolitan area and can be aggressive feeders. Both are subterranean, both build mud leads to reach timber, and neither announces itself until the workings are found.

Risk is not uniform across the state and local conditions matter. Pressure runs highest where mature trees and older housing sit together, which takes in the established inner suburbs, the foreshore pockets along the river, the Darling Scarp districts behind Perth and the towns through the South West, while parts of the coastal sand strip sit a little below that. What raises risk on a specific property is far more practical than geography, and it comes down to moisture, timber in contact with soil and concealed access to the structure. Two houses in the same street can present very different risk profiles for exactly those reasons. Old stumps, buried form work, timber retaining walls and a leaking tap beside the house all contribute. Timber sleeper walls in particular are common across Perth gardens and provide both food and a bridge, which the timber sleeper retaining walls page is worth reading on.

Construction type changes exposure in ways many owners have never considered. A slab on ground house is entered at the slab edge, through penetrations for pipes and conduits, or through cracks in the slab, so the perimeter is the line that matters. A suspended timber floor on piers gives access up the piers and through the subfloor, which is why ventilation and clearance under the house are so important on older properties. Double brick construction, which dominates Perth housing, still has a timber roof structure above it that termites will reach if they can. That roof timber is often the first place damage is found, because nobody looks there between inspections. Where a subfloor exists, keeping it dry and ventilated matters as much as any barrier, and the drainage page covers the moisture side of it.

The financial exposure is the part that motivates most households, and it is worth being clear about it. Standard home insurance policies in Australia almost universally exclude termite damage, treating it as a maintenance issue and not an insured event. That means the cost of repairing structural timber, ceilings, door frames and skirting falls to the owner, and on a significant infestation that runs into tens of thousands. A barrier and an inspection regime is cheap by comparison. It is also one of the few household risks where the preventive cost is a small fraction of the potential loss. Most owners who have been through it wish they had started earlier.

Timing matters because activity does not stop in a Perth winter the way it does further south. Foraging continues year round with peaks in the warmer months, and swarming flights typically occur on humid evenings between spring and autumn. Finding winged termites inside the house is a signal that a colony is established nearby and mature enough to reproduce. If that happens, the response is an inspection rather than a can of surface spray, which will scatter the workers and make the problem harder to locate.

The Barrier Types Explained

A chemical soil barrier is the most common treatment on existing Perth homes. A trench is dug around the perimeter of the building, paths and paving are drilled at intervals where they abut the wall, and a termiticide is applied to the soil to create a continuous treated zone that termites cannot cross without being affected. Products commonly used in Australia include Termidor, Biflex and Premise, and the chemistry differs in whether it repels or is transferred back to the colony. Life expectancy varies with the product and the soil, and the label, not the salesperson, is the authority on it. Sandy Perth soils and constant reticulation moisture both shorten what the label allows for. Ask the technician what duration they expect at your address, since the maximum on the tin is not a promise.

Reticulated systems take the same chemistry and add a delivery method. A network of small diameter pipe with controlled outlets is installed in the trench around the building, so the barrier can be recharged by pumping chemical through the pipe instead of excavating and drilling again. That makes replenishment straightforward and far less disruptive, which is the main argument for the higher upfront cost. Systems from suppliers such as Altis and Termguard are used across WA, and the pipe layout has to be complete and accessible to work. On a house with paving or decking right against the wall, the ability to recharge without lifting anything is worth a great deal over twenty years.

Physical barriers are installed during construction and cannot be retrofitted, which makes them a new build decision. Products such as Kordon, a bonded sheet laid at the slab perimeter and around penetrations, and Homeguard, a polymer sheet or collar system, prevent concealed entry by physical means instead of chemistry. Graded stone barriers and stainless steel mesh systems work on the same principle, using particle size or aperture small enough that termites cannot pass. They last a long time and need no replenishment, which is why they are common on new WA housing. Owner builders should confirm which product the builder has specified, since something being included cannot be assumed.

Baiting and monitoring systems work differently again, and they aim at the colony instead of the perimeter. Stations are installed in the soil around the property, checked on a schedule, and when termite activity appears a bait matrix is introduced that workers carry back and share through the nest. The colony declines over weeks or months rather than immediately, which is the trade off for reaching the nest itself. Sentricon and Exterra are the systems most widely used in Australia. The strength is that a successful baiting program eliminates the colony rather than deflecting it, and the limitation is that it takes time and depends entirely on the monitoring visits happening. Baiting also suits properties where trenching would mean lifting expensive paving or established landscaping.

Many Perth properties end up with a combination of systems. A chemical or reticulated barrier at the perimeter handles concealed entry, while bait stations in the garden target colonies before they reach the building, and the two complement each other reasonably well. Whether that combination is worth the cost depends on the risk at the address and the history of activity nearby. On a property that has already had an infestation, the case for both is considerably stronger. A technician who explains the reasoning rather than selling the most expensive option is the one to listen to. Ask what they would do on their own house and the answer is often revealing. Experienced technicians usually have a firm view and will share it.

Choosing between systems comes down to the house in front of you. A slab on ground home with clear access around the perimeter suits a chemical or reticulated barrier well. A house surrounded by paving, decking and established garden beds may be very difficult to treat chemically without significant disruption, which pushes the balance toward baiting. A new build should have a physical barrier specified from the start, since the opportunity does not come again.

What AS 3660 Requires

The relevant standards are AS 3660.1 for termite management in new building work and AS 3660.2 for existing buildings, both published by Standards Australia. They set out how barriers are to be designed and installed, what constitutes a complete treated zone, how penetrations through a slab must be protected and what inspection access has to be preserved. A quote that references the standard and describes how the work complies with it is a quote from someone who has read it. Both standards are available through Standards Australia and are the benchmark any dispute would eventually be measured against. One that mentions only a brand name has told you less than it appears to.

For new construction in Western Australia, termite management is not optional. The National Construction Code, published by the Australian Building Codes Board, requires primary building elements to be protected where the risk warrants it, and compliance is generally demonstrated through AS 3660.1. That obligation sits with the builder and is checked as part of the building approval process. Owners of new homes should receive documentation showing what system was installed. If you bought a home built in the last decade and have never seen that paperwork, it is worth asking the builder or checking the meter box. Builders are required to provide it, so a request is reasonable years later.

One requirement worth knowing about is the durable notice. AS 3660.1 calls for a notice to be fixed in a prominent location, usually inside the meter box, recording the system installed, the date, the installer and the recommended inspection interval. It is the single most useful document in the whole process because it tells any future inspector, buyer or technician exactly what protects the building. Check the meter box on any house you own or are considering buying, since a great many people never think to look.

Inspection zones are the part of the standard that owners most often undo without realising. The standard expects the slab edge to remain visible for inspection, typically with a clear exposed strip so that mud leads bridging the edge can be seen. Building a garden bed against the wall, paving up to the render line or laying decking over the slab edge conceals exactly the surface the barrier relies on you being able to see. This single issue accounts for a large share of the failures technicians encounter across Perth. Where a garden has already been built up, lowering it is part of the remediation and not an optional tidy up. Reinstating the area afterwards is straightforward and the garden edging page covers keeping beds back from the wall permanently.

Weep holes in brickwork deserve a specific mention in a double brick city. They must remain open and unobstructed, both for moisture management and because a covered weep hole is a concealed entry route straight into the cavity. Render carried down over weep holes, soil banked against the brickwork and paving laid too high all block them. Any barrier installation should include checking that the weep holes are clear, and any owner can check them from the garden in five minutes.

A physical barrier at construction stage does not remove the need for inspections either. The standard is explicit that management is ongoing, and the recommended interval for most Perth properties is at least annually, with some higher risk situations warranting more frequent checks. The interval should appear on the durable notice and in the paperwork provided. Any system sold as install and forget is being misrepresented.

How an Installation Runs

A proper job begins with an inspection, well before a quote is written. The technician needs to establish the construction type, whether there is existing activity or damage, where the slab edge sits, what obstructions surround the building and whether there is a subfloor to access. That inspection produces a written report, and the barrier proposal follows from it. Anyone quoting a barrier without inspecting the building first is pricing a standard job rather than yours, and the termite inspection page explains what a proper inspection covers. Expect the report to include photographs and a clear statement of anywhere that could not be accessed.

Where existing activity is found, treatment comes before any barrier. Installing a barrier around a building that already has termites inside it simply locks the problem in, so the sequence is to treat the active colony first, confirm the activity has ceased, then install the protective system. The termite treatment page covers the methods used at that stage. A technician who proposes to skip straight to the barrier without addressing live activity is not doing the job properly. Where structural timber has already been affected, a structural inspection establishes what repair work is needed. Repairs and barrier work are separate jobs with separate budgets, and conflating them in one quote makes both harder to assess.

The physical work on a chemical barrier is more disruptive than most owners expect. A trench is excavated around the perimeter against the wall, typically to a defined depth, and refilled with treated soil as the work proceeds. Where paths, driveways or paving abut the building, holes are drilled at intervals through the hard surface so chemical can be injected beneath it, and those holes are then plugged. Expect some visual evidence of the drilling afterwards, and ask how it will be made good. Matching plugs on exposed aggregate or patterned paving is never perfect, which is worth knowing before the drilling starts. On a prominent front path, ask to see an example of their finishing work.

Penetrations through the slab are the detail that separates careful work from quick work. Every pipe, conduit and service that passes through the slab is a potential concealed entry route, and each one needs treating or collaring. In an existing house that means locating them, which can require lifting a small area of floor covering in a wet area. A barrier that treats the perimeter and ignores the penetrations has left the most likely entry points open.

Reticulation systems add a layout step but reduce future disruption considerably. The pipe is laid in the trench with outlets at designed intervals, brought back to one or more fill points at accessible positions, and pressure tested before backfilling. Getting the fill point positions right matters, since a fill point buried under a later garden bed defeats the purpose of the system. Ask for a plan showing the pipe run and the fill points, and keep it with the house records.

Site preparation is often needed before the work can proceed, and it is worth budgeting for. Garden beds may need to be cut back from the wall, mulch cleared, shrubs pruned or removed and stored items moved away from the perimeter. Where a garden bed has been raised against the house for years, lowering it is part of the fix rather than an inconvenience, and the landscaping page covers reinstating the area properly afterwards. Reticulation lines running along the wall may also need to be moved or protected, and the irrigation and garden watering systems page covers relocating a station line away from the building.

Safety and access requirements apply during the work. Chemicals are applied under label conditions, occupants and pets may need to stay clear of treated areas for a specified period, and the technician should explain that clearly before starting. Fish ponds, vegetable gardens and rainwater tank inlets all need consideration in the treatment plan. A technician who asks about those things before quoting is thinking about the site properly.

Why Barriers Fail

The most common cause of failure has nothing to do with the chemical or the system and everything to do with what happens afterwards. Soil, mulch or paving built up against the wall covers the slab edge and gives termites a concealed route straight past the treated zone into the structure. It is the single most frequent finding on Perth properties where a barrier failed to prevent entry. Keeping a visible strip of slab edge around the building is the cheapest protection available and it costs nothing but discipline. A hundred millimetres of exposed edge is usually enough to see a mud lead forming. Keeping that strip clear is the single habit most worth adopting.

Moisture against the wall is the second thing that reliably undermines a barrier. A leaking tap, a dripping air conditioner condensate line, a blocked downpipe discharging beside the wall or a reticulation head spraying the brickwork all create the damp conditions termites favour and can degrade a chemical barrier over time. Perth gardens with reticulation running along the house are particularly prone to this, and the fix is usually a nozzle adjustment. Where drainage is the underlying problem, addressing it protects the barrier as well as the building.

Physical disturbance after installation breaches barriers routinely and nobody realises at the time. Trenching for a new reticulation line, digging footings for a pergola, installing a retaining wall, laying a new path or running a conduit all cut through the treated zone or the reticulation pipe. Any excavation within the treated perimeter should be followed by a call to the technician to reinstate that section. It is a small cost compared with discovering the gap two years later.

Timber in contact with soil is an invitation regardless of what barrier is present. Fence posts against the house, timber retaining walls, garden edging, old stumps and stored timber beside the wall all give termites a starting point and a bridge. Timber decking built against the building over the slab edge is a particular problem in Perth, because it both conceals the edge and provides a food source. Where decking is being built, discussing termite management with the builder beforehand avoids designing in the problem.

Chemical barriers do not last indefinitely and expecting them to is a common error. Service life depends on the product, the soil type and the moisture regime, and the label sets out the expected duration under those conditions. Sandy soils and high moisture shorten it. A barrier installed ten years ago and never renewed should be treated as expired rather than assumed to be working, and a reticulated system makes that renewal far less painful. Check the durable notice for the installation date before assuming anything about the current state.

The fourth reason barriers fail is that nobody inspected the property after the installation. An annual inspection is what converts a barrier from a passive hope into an actual management system, since the whole design principle is to force termites into the open where they will be seen. Households that install a barrier and never book an inspection have bought half a solution. Setting a calendar reminder at the same time as the installation is the simplest way to avoid that.

Inspections and Monitoring

A competent inspection covers considerably more than a walk around the outside. The technician checks the perimeter and slab edge, the subfloor where one exists, the roof space, wet areas, the garden and any timber structures, using moisture meters and tapping to identify affected timber. Thermal imaging and radar detection are used by some operators as additional tools, never as replacements for physical inspection. The output should be a written report that records what was checked, what was found and what was not accessible. That last point matters, since an inaccessible roof space or subfloor is a genuine limitation, not a clean result.

Annual is the baseline interval for most Perth properties and some situations warrant more. Properties with a history of activity, houses with limited inspection access, and homes surrounded by mature trees or bushland are all candidates for six monthly checks. The recommended interval should appear on your durable notice and in the technician's report, so the owner is not left guessing. Booking the inspection at the same time each year makes it a habit, so it stops being a decision you have to remember. Spring is a sensible slot, ahead of the warmer months when activity picks up. It also tends to be easier to book than midsummer.

Bait station monitoring runs on its own schedule and the frequency matters more than with a chemical barrier. Stations need checking often enough to detect activity while a colony is still foraging there, and most programs run on a schedule of several visits a year. A baiting system where stations go unchecked for twelve months is not doing anything useful. When you compare a baiting quote against a barrier quote, include the ongoing monitoring cost over five years alongside the installation figure. That comparison often changes which option looks cheaper.

Pre purchase inspections are a distinct product and worth getting right when buying in WA. A timber pest inspection is separate from a building inspection, though many firms offer both together, and it is the one that identifies termite activity, past damage and conducive conditions. Given the exclusion of termite damage from home insurance, this is not a corner to cut on a Perth purchase. The building inspection page covers how the two inspections fit together. Buyers should also ask the seller for the durable notice and any inspection history.

Owners can do useful checks between professional visits without any equipment. Walk the perimeter looking for mud leads on the brickwork or the slab edge, check that weep holes are clear, look at the base of any timber in contact with the ground, tap skirting boards and door frames for a hollow sound, and look for paint that appears blistered or rippled. Any of those findings warrants a call, and not an investigation with a screwdriver. Breaking open a mud lead or disturbing workings makes the colony relocate and harder to treat.

Where activity is found, the response order matters. Do not spray, disturb or attempt to treat it, because scattering the workers spreads them through the building and removes the technician's best chance of tracing the lead back. Photograph it, leave it alone and call a licensed technician, who will usually recommend a baiting or dusting approach that the workers carry back to the nest. That transfer effect is what reaches the colony, and killing the termites you can see achieves very little on its own. Rushing in with a hardware store product is the most expensive thing an owner can do at that moment. Alates, the winged reproductive termites that swarm on humid evenings, tell you the colony is close rather than merely present in the district, which changes the urgency of the response.

Licensing and Consumer Protection

Anyone applying pesticide commercially in this state holds a licence for it, and the products themselves are regulated by the Department of Health under state health legislation. That licensing covers both the individual technician and, where relevant, the business. Asking for the licence details before work begins is entirely normal and a legitimate operator provides them without hesitation. General state government service information is published at wa.gov.au, which is a useful starting point for checking any licensing requirement. It is also the simplest way to filter out the cheapest quotes that arrive from unlicensed operators. Unlicensed pesticide application is an offence and not a grey area. It also voids any prospect of a warranty being honoured.

Chemical products must be registered for the use they are being put to, and applied strictly according to the label. The label is a legal document rather than a suggestion, setting out application rates, safety requirements, withholding periods and expected duration. A technician who cannot tell you which product they are using and at what rate is not working to the label. Ask for the product name and the safety data sheet, both of which should be available on request.

Occupational safety obligations apply to the work as well, administered by WorkSafe WA. Trenching around a building, working in a confined subfloor and handling chemicals all carry requirements that a professional operator manages as routine. Those obligations protect the household as well as the worker, since a subfloor entry made carelessly can damage services or disturb asbestos in older properties. On a pre-1990 home, the asbestos testing and inspection page is worth reading before anyone works under the floor. Older subfloors sometimes contain offcuts and debris that need identifying first.

Consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law apply to termite work as to any service, and the ACCC sets out what those guarantees actually cover in practice. Beyond that, many barrier installations come with a warranty or a service agreement, and the conditions attached to those agreements matter enormously. Most require annual inspections to be carried out by the installing company, and most exclude damage where the inspection zones have been obstructed by the owner. Read those conditions before signing, since after a claim is too late.

Be careful to distinguish between a product warranty, an installation warranty and a damage guarantee, because they are three different things. A product warranty covers the chemical or system performing as specified. An installation warranty covers the workmanship. A damage guarantee, where offered, promises to meet repair costs if termites cause damage despite the system, and those are the ones with the most detailed conditions. Ask which of the three you are being offered and get it in writing. Nobody thinks about which one they hold until termites have already done damage, and by then the wording is fixed.

Keeping records makes every future conversation easier. The inspection report, the barrier installation certificate, the durable notice details, the product used and the date, the system plan if reticulated, and each annual inspection report all belong together. That file supports a warranty claim, satisfies a buyer's inspector at sale time and tells the next technician exactly what they are dealing with. Owners who cannot produce it are in a weaker position in every one of those situations.

Costs in Detail

A termite inspection with a written report runs $280 to $550 in the Perth metropolitan area, depending on property size and access. That is the right first step before any barrier, because the barrier proposal should follow from what the inspection found. A pre purchase timber pest inspection sits in a similar range and is often bundled with a building inspection at a combined rate. Regional properties carry a travel component, which is usually stated separately on the quote.

A chemical perimeter barrier on a typical Perth home runs $2,400 to $5,200. Perimeter length is the main driver, followed by how much paving, path or driveway has to be drilled, since drilling and making good is slower than trenching through garden. Drilling through hard surfaces is commonly charged at $28 to $65 a lineal metre on top of the base rate. Complex perimeters with multiple levels, decking or extensive paving sit above the range. Split level Perth homes on sloping blocks are the usual example. Hills properties with retaining walls against the house are another, since the wall often sits hard against the building with soil behind it.

Reticulated replenishment systems run $3,200 to $7,500 installed, which is a meaningful premium over a straight chemical barrier. The case for it is that future replenishment is a pumping exercise rather than a re-excavation, so the cost is recovered over the second and third treatments. On a property with extensive paving against the house, that saving is substantial. On a simple garden perimeter that will be easy to retreat, the premium is harder to justify. Ask the technician to price both so the difference is visible.

Baiting and monitoring systems typically cost $1,600 to $3,800 to install, with ongoing monitoring at $380 to $900 a year depending on station count and visit frequency. The installation figure alone makes baiting look cheaper than a barrier, which is misleading unless the monitoring is included in the comparison. Over five years the two approaches often land closer than the headline numbers suggest. Ask for a five year total when comparing them.

Physical barriers at construction stage run $1,800 to $4,500 for a typical new home, and they are usually included in the builder's contract instead of arranged separately. Because they cannot be retrofitted, the decision belongs at the specification stage. Owner builders and anyone commissioning a new build should confirm what system is specified and ask to see the durable notice on completion. The builders page covers what to expect from a building contract. Ask what system is specified before signing, well before the slab is poured.

Annual inspections after installation run $250 to $480, and this is the recurring cost that keeps the whole arrangement functional. Many companies offer a discounted rate where the inspection is bundled with a warranty or service agreement. Skipping it to save a few hundred dollars typically voids whatever warranty is attached and removes the early warning the system was designed to provide. It is the least sensible saving available on this page.

Regional pricing across Western Australia reflects travel more than anything else. Technicians based in Bunbury, Busselton, Albany, Geraldton and Kalgoorlie service their own areas at metropolitan-comparable rates, and a property well outside any service base picks up travel plus, in some cases, a minimum attendance fee. Grouping neighbouring properties into one visit is common practice. It is worth asking whether a technician is already working nearby that week.

What to Look Out For

Be cautious of anyone promising a termite proof house. No system delivers that, and the language itself is a signal that the operator is selling, not advising. What a barrier does is make concealed entry far harder and push termites into the open, which only helps if inspections follow. A technician who explains that limitation clearly is being honest with you at some cost to their own pitch. It is usually a sign they will be straight with you about everything else too.

Watch for a quote produced without an inspection. Barrier design depends on construction type, slab edge condition, obstructions, existing activity and access, and none of that can be judged over the phone. A price offered sight unseen is a standard job rather than yours, and it will be revised once the technician arrives. Insist on the inspection and the written report first.

Be careful about quotes that skip the penetrations. Every pipe and conduit through the slab is a potential concealed entry, and treating only the perimeter leaves the likeliest routes open. Ask specifically how penetrations will be handled and what happens in wet areas where they are hidden under flooring. A quote that addresses them is a quote from someone working to the standard, not reading off a price list.

Check the warranty conditions before signing anything. Most agreements require annual inspections by the installing company and exclude damage where garden beds, paving or decking have obstructed the inspection zones, which is entirely reasonable but needs to be understood. Make sure you know whether you are being offered a product warranty, an installation warranty or a damage guarantee. The differences matter enormously if a claim ever arises. Ask for the full terms, since the brochure summary leaves out the exclusions.

One last check: verify the licence and ask which chemical will be used and at what rate. Pest management is licensed in Western Australia and pesticide application is regulated, and a technician who is vague about either is not the person to have working around your house. Ask for the product name and the safety data sheet. Both requests are routine and are answered immediately by anyone operating properly. Hesitation on either is the clearest warning available at quoting stage.

How to Get Comparable Quotes

Start by gathering the basics a technician will ask about. The approximate age of the house, whether it is slab on ground or has a suspended floor, roughly how long the perimeter is, how much of it is paved or built against, whether there is any history of termite activity at the property or nearby, and whether an existing barrier or durable notice is in place. Check the meter box for that notice before you ring anyone, since it may answer several questions at once.

Every operator should be answering the same written questions. Licence number, the system proposed and why, the product name and application rate, how penetrations will be treated, how much drilling is required and how it will be made good, the expected service life of the treatment, the recommended inspection interval, what the warranty or agreement covers and excludes, whether a durable notice will be fitted, and the cost of annual inspections or monitoring going forward.

Compare the scope and the five year cost, because the installation figure alone hides most of it. A baiting system that looks cheaper to install carries monitoring fees that a chemical barrier does not, while a chemical barrier will need renewing at some point that baiting does not. Laying both out over five years is the only fair comparison. Ask each operator to express it that way and most will, since it is a reasonable basis for comparison. Where one refuses, that itself tells you something about how the pricing is structured.

Prepare the site before the crew arrives to keep the job moving. Cut back garden beds from the wall, clear mulch and stored items from the perimeter, move pots and furniture, secure pets, and identify where reticulation lines run so they are not damaged during trenching. A perimeter that is already clear shortens the job and reduces the chance of something being missed. Some operators charge for site preparation if they have to do it themselves, so it is worth asking. It also tends to produce a tidier result, since the technician is not working around obstacles.

Keep the complete record afterwards and treat the annual inspection as non negotiable. The installation certificate, the durable notice, the product details, the system plan and every inspection report belong in one place, ideally digitally so they survive a move. Termite damage is excluded from almost every home insurance policy in Australia, which means the inspection regime is the actual protection, and the paperwork only records it. A few hundred dollars a year against a repair bill in the tens of thousands is the clearest arithmetic on this page. Every other decision on this page is really about getting that comparison right.