Independent inspection to AS 4349.1 by a registered building contractor. What you are buying, read by someone who has built. Report within 24 hours.
A pre-purchase building inspection in Ballajura reads a master-planned estate. Built mostly through the 1980s and 90s and designed as a whole, Ballajura is volume brick-veneer homes on concrete slabs, laid out around constructed lakes and drainage, and the building inspection to AS 4349.1 reads that later estate construction and the engineered, sometimes reactive ground it sits on.
The construction is the first factor. Ballajura's homes are largely a timber frame behind a single brick skin on a concrete slab, so the building inspection reads the frame through the roof space for movement and moisture, the wall ties and weep holes, along with the articulation joints the veneer relies on, and the slab for rising damp at the edge and the heave or settlement reactive clay can drive. Roof plumbing, meaning the flashings and valleys and the roof-space workmanship, is read closely, because volume building is where a rushed detail shows.
The ground and water are the distinctive factor. Master-planned estates on the northern plain often sit on reactive clay, which swells and shrinks with moisture and drives the differential movement that cracks walls, and the constructed lakes and drainage that make the estate work also mean some blocks sit near water and on filled or engineered ground. The building inspection reads floor levels and crack patterns for that movement, and the slab edge and site drainage for the damp a high water table or nearby lake can push up.
At two to four decades old, the emphasis is build quality and maintenance more than age, though the earliest homes are reaching the point where roofs and finishes need attention. Where a block has been subdivided, the newer dwelling is read for build quality and shared elements, and asbestos, present in the earliest of these homes, is flagged in eaves and sheeting without being disturbed.
Because it reports to AS 4349.1, the building inspection excludes timber pests, and with constructed lakes and drainage throughout, the timber pest scope is well worth adding, because that water and the watered gardens create conducive conditions and the slab edge is the pathway. The building inspection's value here is reading the veneer-and-slab construction and the reactive clay and constructed water beneath it together.
We run the same inspection across the area, including nearby Alexander Heights and Koondoola.
MISSING: phone number · Book online → · Flat $440 inc GST, report within 24 hours.
Mostly volume brick-veneer homes on concrete slabs, built through the 1980s and 90s as a master-planned estate laid out around constructed lakes and drainage. We read that later estate construction and the engineered, sometimes reactive ground it sits on, reported to AS 4349.1 with the areas not safely accessed.
We read the timber frame behind the brick skin through the roof space for movement and moisture, the wall ties, weep holes and articulation the veneer relies on, and the slab for rising damp at the edge and the heave or settlement reactive clay can drive, along with the roof plumbing.
Yes. Master-planned estates on the northern plain often sit on reactive clay, which swells and shrinks with moisture and drives the differential movement that cracks walls, so we read floor levels and crack patterns for that movement and the slab edge for the damp it can bring.
They can. The lakes and drainage that make the estate work mean some blocks sit near water and on filled or engineered ground, so we read the slab edge and site drainage for the damp a high water table or nearby lake can push up.
It can be. In volume building the flashings and valleys and roof-space workmanship are where a rushed detail most often shows, so we read the roof plumbing closely for leaks and poor falls.
It identifies and flags suspect materials without disturbing them. The earliest Ballajura homes can contain asbestos in eaves and sheeting; the later ones are largely free of it. We flag suspect materials by age and appearance where present.
The read shifts to build quality on the newer dwelling: wet-area waterproofing to AS 3740, roof-space workmanship, and the shared driveways and walls grouped title creates.
A flat $440 including GST for the pre-purchase building inspection, or $616 including GST with the timber pest scope added in the same visit. The fee is the same in every suburb, and you have the report within 24 hours.
Given the constructed lakes and drainage, yes. The building inspection reports to AS 4349.1 and excludes pests, and that water and the watered gardens create conducive conditions while the slab edge is the pathway, so the two scopes are worth doing together.
Yes. A clear building report separates the significant issue, reactive-clay movement or roof-plumbing leaks, from the cosmetic, and gives you a concrete basis to renegotiate.
Also available as a combined building and timber pest inspection in Ballajura — both scopes in one visit to AS 4349.1 and AS 4349.3, one report within 24 hours.
Combined B&P 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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