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 Bayswater has to read a suburb with three quite different faces. Along the Swan River its southern blocks sit on demanding alluvial ground; around the rebuilt railway station it has densified into new apartments; and between them lie the older interwar, post-war and character streets. The building inspection to AS 4349.1 reads whichever of these you are buying on its own terms, with the river-flat ground and the modern strata the two factors that most shape the work.
The river flats come first. The low ground toward the Swan is alluvial, which tends to be reactive clay with a high water table, a difficult combination for footings: reactive clay swells and shrinks with moisture and drives the differential movement that cracks walls, while a high water table pushes damp up into subfloors and slabs. On a low, river-side block the building inspection reads floor levels and crack patterns for that movement, the subfloor and slab edge for the damp the ground pushes up, and the site drainage closely.
The station precinct comes second. Around the rebuilt station the building inspection meets new apartments and mixed-use buildings, where the structural picture lives partly in the strata records: the minutes reveal levies and known common-property defects, and the building itself is read for balcony and podium waterproofing and external cladding, and facade sealing, the concerns modern high-density stock is prone to.
The older homes are read for their era, the rising damp of pre-damp-course walls and the brittle tiled roofs and delignified framing, and the asbestos in post-war materials, identified and flagged. Many are renovation or development sites, and each addition is read for structure and waterproofing, and for whether it was approved.
The roof space takes the longest time on the older homes, read for framing condition and water entry and delignification, while on a river-flat block the subfloor takes equal weight.
Because it reports to AS 4349.1, the building inspection excludes timber pests, and on the river flats and established gardens the timber pest scope is worth adding, while the newer apartments are lower risk. The building inspection's value here is reading the reactive river-flat ground, the station-precinct strata and the ageing homes between them each on their own terms.
We run the same inspection across the area, including nearby Ashfield and Embleton.
MISSING: phone number · Book online → · Flat $440 inc GST, report within 24 hours.
A visual inspection to AS 4349.1 tailored to which Bayswater you are buying in. On a river-flat house it is the reactive-clay ground and the subfloor; on a station-precinct apartment it is the building envelope and records; on an older street it is the period structure. We read each on its own terms, with the areas not safely accessed noted.
On the low, river-side blocks the ground is alluvial, tending to reactive clay with a high water table. Reactive clay swells and shrinks and drives differential movement that cracks walls, while a high water table pushes damp up, so we read the floor levels and the subfloor and slab edge, and the drainage, closely.
The building and its records. We read the balcony and podium waterproofing and external cladding for type and condition, and the facade sealing, then we read the strata minutes for levies and known common-property defects, because that history can point to costs that dwarf the inspection.
It is worth checking. We read the external cladding for type and condition given the concerns about combustible cladding on newer buildings, and note where it warrants further investigation or where the records show it has been assessed.
In the post-war stock, yes, in eaves and sheeting. We identify and flag suspect materials without disturbing them, which matters most if you plan to renovate or develop.
With the ground in mind. On reactive alluvial clay we expect some seasonal movement, so we separate that from structural distress, read it against the footings, and give weight to the differential movement reactive clay and a high water table can drive.
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.
On the houses, yes; the newer apartments are lower risk, being concrete and elevated. The building inspection reports to AS 4349.1 and excludes pests, so for a house the two scopes are usually done together.
We can inspect the lot and accessible common property, but the records are central in a modern building, so we recommend obtaining them and tell you plainly what the physical inspection could and could not cover.
Yes. Whether it is a river-side house or a new apartment, a clear building report separates the significant issue from the cosmetic, and gives you a concrete basis to renegotiate.
Also available as a combined building and timber pest inspection in Bayswater — 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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