Both scopes in one visit — building to AS 4349.1, timber pest to AS 4349.3. The fuller check, by a registered building contractor. Report within 24 hours.
Highgate is one of Perth's oldest inner-north pockets, and it wears its age well: tight streets of Federation and interwar workers' cottages and villas, most of them renovated at least once, many of them heritage or character-listed, all of them close enough to the city to have been gentrified hard. A building and timber pest inspection in Highgate is almost always an inspection of an old house that has been changed, and the changes are where the money is won or lost.
The bones are period masonry. The oldest Highgate homes are solid brick with no damp-proof course, and the slightly later ones are early cavity work, so rising and salt damp is the first thing read at the base of the walls, that tell-tale fretting and staining where ground moisture has wicked up through the brick for a hundred years. A pin and a non-invasive moisture meter separate genuine rising damp from a blocked downpipe or a leaking wet area, because on a Highgate cottage the three look identical and cost wildly different amounts to fix. Original jarrah floorboards, lath-and-plaster walls and lime mortar all come with the era, and where the home is listed, even a sympathetic repair can need approval.
Then there is the renovation, which in Highgate is close to universal. A two-bedroom cottage becomes a three-bedroom home with a rear addition; a lean-to becomes a second bathroom; the roof space over the original is opened into the new. Every junction between the old front and the new back is a place trouble hides, because hundred-year-old double brick and modern framing move differently and the joint between them cracks and leaks. Wet areas retrofitted into rooms never built to be wet fail at the waterproofing, and a shower quietly wetting an old wall is a five-figure repair that presents as a hairline in the grout. The inspection spends its time on those seams, and on whether the additions were ever approved, because unpermitted work becomes the buyer's problem at settlement.
The roofs tell their own story. Many Highgate homes still carry their original terracotta or early concrete tiles, now well past fifty years, brittle and porous, with sarking that has long perished if it was ever there. In those roof spaces the exposed hardwood framing often shows chemical delignification, the slow surface breakdown that leaves rafters and battens soft and fibrous, and it is read by eye and gentle probing. Treating it is a particular area of ours, and the older Highgate roofs are exactly where it appears.
On the timber pest side, Highgate's established, watered gardens and its old raised-floor cottages give subterranean termites what they want, being moisture and cover, without the bush-reservoir pressure of the outer suburbs. The subfloor of a raised cottage is read for ventilation and damp, the perimeter for soil banked against the brickwork and timber in ground contact, and any suspect timber for the hollow sound that gives a gallery away, with movement-detection tools used where activity is suspected behind an intact wall. Termite management follows AS 3660, and on a tightly built Highgate lot where the neighbour's garden bed sits against your footing, the conducive conditions matter as much as any live find.
The through-line in Highgate is layers. You are rarely buying a single-period house here; you are buying an original with decades of changes bolted to it, and the value of the report is telling which of those changes were done well, which were done cheaply, and which were never approved at all.
We run the same two-scope visit across the area, including nearby Mount Lawley and Northbridge.
MISSING: phone number · Book online → · Flat $616 inc GST for both scopes, report within 24 hours.
Yes, that is most of the work here. Highgate's Federation and interwar cottages are solid or early cavity brick with no damp-proof course, so rising and salt damp, original jarrah floors, lath-and-plaster and heritage repair constraints are all read carefully. Where a home is listed, we note the fabric that limits how a defect can be fixed.
It means the junctions matter most. A period cottage with a later rear addition joins old double brick to modern framing, and that joint cracks and leaks. Retrofitted wet areas are a common failure point. We concentrate on those seams and on whether the additions were ever approved.
Very, in the older stock built without a damp-proof course. Ground moisture wicks up through the brick and leaves a fretting, staining band low on the wall. We map it with both a pin and a non-invasive moisture meter and separate genuine rising damp from a leak or condensation, because each is fixed differently.
Many Highgate roofs still carry original terracotta or early concrete tiles that are now brittle and porous, with perished sarking. The roof timbers often show chemical delignification, a surface breakdown that leaves them soft. We check for it by close inspection and probing, and treating it is a particular area of ours.
Yes. We read whether the conversion was done properly or simply partitioned, how the wet areas and services were handled, and whether fire separation and access between the dwellings were addressed. Older conversions often cut corners that a buyer should know about.
We note the original fabric that carries the constraint, being lath-and-plaster, lime mortar, timber sash windows and early roof structures, because listing can require like-for-like repair with approval. That turns a simple fix into a slower, dearer one, and it is better known before you buy.
Yes. Highgate's established, watered gardens and old raised-floor cottages give subterranean termites the moisture and cover they want. We read the subfloor for damp and ventilation, the perimeter for soil and timber contact, and suspect timber by sounding, with movement detection where activity is suspected behind a wall.
It can. Tight Highgate lots mean additions built close to or on the boundary, neighbours' garden beds against your footings, and shared drainage. We read what those close conditions do to damp and termite risk, and note where boundary work looks unapproved.
A flat $616 including GST for both the building and timber pest scopes, the same in every suburb. A layered old home takes longer on site than a simple one, and you have the written report, with photos, within 24 hours.
That is much of its value. An old, renovated cottage naturally accumulates cosmetic notes, and a clear report separates those from the one structural or damp issue that should change your price, giving you something concrete to take back to the agent.
Buying in Highgate? A pre-purchase building inspection — building scope only, report within 24 hours — gives you the documented record before exchange.
Pre-purchase inspection →Our office is at Suite 55, 15 Labouchere Road, South Perth WA 6151 — on the Swan River foreshore near the Perth Zoo.
Tell us about the property and what you need. We'll come back to you with a firm quote and a time.
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