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 Highgate is, nine times out of ten, the structural reading of an old house that has been altered. The suburb's Federation and interwar cottages and villas are among the oldest housing near the city, almost all renovated at least once, and a building inspection to AS 4349.1 is there to tell you what the century and the changes have actually done to the structure before you commit.
It starts at the ground. The oldest Highgate homes sit on shallow footings that predate modern engineering, and the walls above them carry the record of every bit of movement since. Cracking is read for meaning rather than counted: fine cosmetic shrinkage is one thing, stepped cracking above windows and doors, bowing in a long wall, or a floor gone visibly out of level is another. A registered building contractor reads that wall backwards, from the crack on the surface to the footing or the lintel behind it, and on a Highgate home with a heavy rear addition the question is often whether the old and new footings are moving together or pulling apart.
The fabric of these homes is period, and it behaves in period ways. Solid or early cavity brick without a damp-proof course draws ground moisture up into the wall, and the building inspection reads that dampness for what it is doing to the brick, the plaster and any timber in contact with it. Original jarrah floors are checked for spring and rot, and for past borer damage; lath-and-plaster ceilings for sag and detachment; the timber sash windows and roof structure for the wear a hundred years brings. Where the home is heritage-listed, the report notes the fabric that will make repairs slower and dearer to do properly.
The additions are where a Highgate inspection earns its fee. Almost every cottage here has been opened up, extended or reconfigured, and the joints between the periods are where structure and waterproofing meet and sometimes fail. Retrofitted bathrooms and laundries are read for the waterproofing that so often lets go, roof spaces over the old and new sections for how the two structures were tied together, and the whole of the work for whether it was ever approved, because unpermitted building becomes the buyer's liability the day the contract settles.
The roof space is where the longest time goes. Under the original terracotta or early concrete tiles, now brittle and past their life, the inspection reads the framing and battens, and any sign of water entry or past repair, and on the older Highgate roofs it reads specifically for chemical delignification, the surface breakdown that leaves hardwood timbers soft and fibrous and reduces what they can carry.
Because it reports to AS 4349.1, the building inspection excludes timber pests by name, and in most of Highgate it is worth adding the timber pest scope in the same visit; the two together read the structure and the pests that attack it. Either way, the value of the building inspection here is judgement: separating the one structural issue that should change your decision from the many cosmetic notes an old, much-loved, much-altered Highgate home naturally carries.
We run the same inspection across the area, including nearby Mount Lawley and Northbridge.
MISSING: phone number · Book online → · Flat $440 inc GST, report within 24 hours.
A visual inspection to AS 4349.1 of the readily accessible parts of the property: the roof space and subfloor, the interior and exterior walls, and the site. On a Highgate home that means the older footings and wall cracking, the period roof structure, retrofitted wet areas and any additions, reported as significant defects with the areas that could not be safely accessed.
For meaning, not by counting. We separate cosmetic shrinkage from structural movement, looking at stepped cracking above openings, bowing, floor level and whether old and new sections are moving together. The pattern points back to the footing or lintel behind it, which is what actually matters to a buyer.
Yes. Without a damp-proof course, ground moisture rises into the wall, so we read what that damp is doing to the brick, plaster and any timber in contact with it, and map how high it reaches with a moisture meter. It is a defining feature of the oldest Highgate stock.
The junction. We read whether the old and new footings move together, how the two roof structures were tied, and how the addition was waterproofed, because the joint between hundred-year-old brick and modern framing is where cracking and leaks concentrate. We also flag whether the work looks approved.
Yes. Original jarrah floors are checked for spring, rot and old borer damage, and the roof framing for sag, water entry and chemical delignification, the surface breakdown common in the older Highgate roofs that leaves hardwood soft and reduces its strength.
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 does not change with the suburb, and you have the report within 24 hours.
In most of Highgate, yes. The building inspection reports to AS 4349.1 and excludes pests by name, and the established gardens and old raised-floor cottages here give termites what they need, so the two scopes are usually done together in the one visit.
It changes what a defect means. We note the original fabric that carries a heritage constraint, because listing can require like-for-like repair with approval, which turns a simple fix into a slower and more expensive one. Knowing that before you buy is the point.
Yes, and it is worth it. Auction purchases are unconditional, so a building inspection beforehand means you bid on a Highgate home knowing what it actually needs, rather than finding out afterwards with no recourse.
That is much of its value. An old, altered Highgate home accumulates cosmetic notes, and a clear, prioritised report separates those from the structural issue that should change your price, giving you a concrete basis to take back to the agent or vendor.
Also available as a combined building and timber pest inspection in Highgate — 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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