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 Floreat reads a distinctive era. This is a planned garden suburb of mid-century and modernist homes in cream and clinker brick on large, leafy blocks, and the building inspection to AS 4349.1 reads a construction language quite different from the double-brick-and-tile stock further in, along with the new homes that are steadily replacing it.
The defining structural feature is the roof. Many Floreat homes carry low-pitched, skillion or near-flat roofs, and those are read closely, because they shed water slowly, pool where the falls have flattened, and depend on membranes and box gutters that fail with age. A flat-roof leak tracks into the structure differently from a pitched-tile one, so the building inspection weighs the roof and its falls, its drainage and its junctions, as a primary structural question here.
The mid-century structure carries the rest of its era's read. The cream brickwork is read for cracking against its shallow footings, the large steel-framed windows for rust and seal failure, and the era's materials for asbestos, which the inspection identifies and flags in eaves and sheeting without disturbing it, so a buyer weighing renovation or replacement knows what is there. Where a home is founded on or built of the limestone that underlies Floreat toward the coast, the footings are read for undermining and the base for salt attack near the ground.
The large blocks bring mature trees close to homes, and the building inspection reads what their roots and canopy do to the footings and drainage and damp. Those same blocks drive Floreat's knockdown-rebuild market, so the inspection often meets a recent architect-built replacement instead, where the read shifts to build quality: wet-area waterproofing to AS 3740 and the roof, and the flat-roof detailing modern designs favour, and the finishing a fast build rushes.
The roof space, where a home has a conventional one, is read for framing condition and water entry, and past repair, and the subfloor for damp and ventilation.
Because it reports to AS 4349.1, the building inspection excludes timber pests, and on Floreat's mature gardens and older timber the timber pest scope is worth adding in the same visit. The building inspection's value here is reading a distinctive mid-century home, its flat roofs and its cream brick and its asbestos, or the new build that has replaced it, accurately and on its own terms.
We run the same inspection across the area, including nearby Churchlands and Jolimont.
MISSING: phone number · Book online → · Flat $440 inc GST, report within 24 hours.
The mid-century era and its form. We read the cream or clinker brickwork, the low-pitched or flat roofs, the large steel-framed windows and the asbestos-era materials that mark a planned 1950s or 60s Floreat home, reported to AS 4349.1 with the areas not safely accessed.
Because they behave differently from tiled pitched roofs. They shed water slowly, pool where the falls have flattened, and rely on membranes and box gutters that fail with age, and a flat-roof leak tracks into the structure differently. We weigh the roof, its falls and its drainage as a primary structural question.
In the 1950s and 60s cream-brick stock, very likely: in the eaves and sheeting and behind wet-area tiles. We identify and flag suspect materials without disturbing them, which matters to buyers weighing renovation or replacement.
It can. Large established trees close to a home can disturb footings and drainage with their roots and keep walls and subfloors damp. We read what the trees are doing to the structure, and those big blocks are also what drive the suburb's rebuild market.
The focus shifts to build quality: wet-area waterproofing to AS 3740 and the roof, and the flat-roof detailing modern designs favour, and the finishing a fast build rushes. On a near-new home a pre-handover look while the builder is liable is worth as much as a pre-purchase one.
They are read as part of the exterior. The large steel-framed windows of the era rust and lose their seals, letting water in at the reveals, so we read them for rust and distortion and seal failure.
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 Floreat's mature gardens and older timber, usually yes. The building inspection reports to AS 4349.1 and excludes pests, so the two scopes are commonly done together in the one visit.
It can. As Floreat rises toward the coast the ground runs to limestone, and where an older home is founded on or built of it, we read the footings for undermining and the base for salt attack near the ground.
Yes. Whether it is an original modernist home or a new build, a clear building report separates the significant issue, a failing flat roof or a waterproofing defect, from the cosmetic, giving you a concrete basis to renegotiate.
Also available as a combined building and timber pest inspection in Floreat — 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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