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.
Fremantle is built on limestone, and a pre-purchase building inspection here reads for that fact before anything else. From the 1830s the porous limestone hills beneath the city were quarried to build its homes, boundary walls and public buildings, and the 1890s cottages with their high ceilings, ornate plasterwork, limestone boundary walls and rear laneways that still define the domestic fabric of Fremantle are limestone buildings. That means the central building read is about moisture moving through porous stone rather than about brick, and the findings that come out of it belong in any serious offer before the papers are signed.
Rising damp through limestone is the first thing the read addresses. Limestone holds moisture and allows it to travel further up the wall than fired brick does, and when the mortar joints or lime render fail, that moisture travels further still before it shows. We read the base of the walls, the mortar and the internal plaster and skirtings for the tide-mark of how far the damp has climbed, because specialist limestone damp remediation is a real cost and a negotiating point.
Below the walls is the other Fremantle feature. Limestone cellars are not uncommon, and parts of the old precinct sit over a limestone tunnel network, so any home over a cellar or basement earns a read of its ventilation and moisture, and its structural condition. Knowing what is below as well as above is part of what a pre-purchase read in Fremantle delivers.
The heritage fabric is the third read. Original plasterwork, ceiling roses, wide hallways and original joinery are what makes an old Fremantle home worth what it costs, and they are also what costs money when they need attention. We read their condition plainly so you know whether the price reflects a home that has been cared for or one that presents beautifully and owes work.
A pre-purchase inspection gives you the building scope on its own, to AS 4349.1, with the defects that matter set out plainly and separated from the cosmetic. In Fremantle, where the homes are built from the ground they stand on, that reading is what the price should be based on. The report follows within 24 hours.
We run the same inspection across the area, including nearby North Fremantle and East Fremantle.
MISSING: phone number · Book online → · Flat $440 inc GST, report within 24 hours.
A building inspection to AS 4349.1 that reads the structure and fabric of a limestone heritage home before you buy, with rising damp through porous stone as the central concern.
No, it is the building scope only. If you want the pest check too, the combined building and pest inspection covers both in one visit.
Limestone is porous where fired clay is not, so moisture moves through it more readily and travels further up the wall before it shows. The mortar joints and lime render are where it enters first.
The base of the walls, the mortar joints, and the internal plaster and skirtings for the tide-mark of how far moisture has climbed, because specialist limestone remediation is a real cost that belongs in your offer.
Cellars are read for ventilation, moisture and structural condition, because knowing what is below a Fremantle home is as important as knowing what is above it.
It can restrict alterations, so knowing the condition and the listing together is how you judge the true cost of ownership. We read the condition; a heritage consultant covers the restrictions.
Original plasterwork, ceiling roses, hallways and joinery, which are the value of an old Fremantle home and the cost when they need attention, so we read their condition plainly.
Yes, and in this market the findings can be significant. It sets the defects that matter out plainly and apart from the cosmetic, giving you a concrete basis to renegotiate.
Original joinery, timber floors and established gardens behind boundary walls give termites cover and a path. The combined inspection covers this in the same visit.
Within 24 hours of the inspection, with photos and a plain read of what matters, so you can act before your offer conditions close.
Also available as a combined building and timber pest inspection in Fremantle — 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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