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 Inglewood is, more than in most suburbs, an inspection of a specific era. Inglewood holds one of Perth's finest runs of interwar housing, streets of 1920s and 1930s Californian bungalows, Spanish Mission and art deco, and the building inspection to AS 4349.1 reads the particular way those homes were built, and how they have aged.
The interwar structure is distinct. The walls are tuck-pointed double brick, often rendered with decorative detailing at the parapets, and the building inspection reads that render for cracking and detachment from the masonry behind it, the steel casement and leadlight windows for rust and water entry at the reveals, and the masonry generally for movement against the shallow footings of the period. Damp-proofing here is transitional, the earliest homes without a course and the later with an early one, so the base of the walls is read for rising damp and the era of construction worked out, because that determines what the damp means.
The roofs are the classic Marseille terracotta of the period, and they take real time on an Inglewood inspection. Near a century old, the tiles are porous and brittle, and beneath them the hardwood framing and battens are read for chemical delignification, the surface breakdown that leaves timber soft and reduces what it can carry, along with sag, past repair and water entry. It is one of the defining structural questions on a home of this age.
Renovation follows a consistent Inglewood pattern: the character front is preserved and the home is extended to the rear. The building inspection concentrates on the junction where the original meets the addition, on how the two structures were tied and how the addition was waterproofed, and on whether the work was approved, because unapproved building passes to the buyer. Where a second storey has been added, the inspection checks whether the original footings and walls were up to carrying it.
Along Beaufort Street the market shifts to apartments and mixed-use, and there the strata records join the structural picture, with the condition of the concrete, the balconies and the waterproofing read against the minutes.
Because it reports to AS 4349.1, the building inspection excludes timber pests by name, and on Inglewood's old timber and established gardens the timber pest scope is worth adding in the same visit. The building inspection's value here is reading the interwar era accurately, and being clear about what its render, its terracotta and its transitional damp-proofing will mean for the home you are buying.
We run the same inspection across the area, including nearby Bedford and Mount Lawley.
MISSING: phone number · Book online → · Flat $440 inc GST, report within 24 hours.
The interwar era. We read the tuck-pointed double brick, the decorative render, the Marseille terracotta roof and the steel casement windows, plus the transitional damp-proofing that marks 1920s and 30s construction. Each of those is a distinct structural question, reported to AS 4349.1 with the areas not safely accessed.
It is read as one. The render at parapets and entries cracks and detaches from the masonry behind it, and we tap it for drummy sections and read where it has let water into the wall, because failed render is both a structural and a weatherproofing issue.
Because they are near a century old. The tiles are porous and brittle, and under them the hardwood framing can show chemical delignification, which leaves timber soft and reduces its capacity. We read the roof structure closely for that, for sag and for water entry.
It is transitional. The earliest interwar homes were built without one and the later with an early version, so we assess rising damp at the base of the walls and determine which era of construction it is, because that changes the reading and the fix.
The junction between the preserved front and the new addition: how the structures were tied, how the addition was waterproofed, and whether it was approved. Where a second storey was added, we check whether the original structure was up to carrying it.
A read of the lot and common property against the strata records, with the condition of the concrete, balconies and waterproofing weighed against the minutes and any known defects or special levy.
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 Inglewood's old timber and established gardens, 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.
Yes, and it is worth it, because these homes often sell at unconditional auction. An inspection beforehand means you bid knowing what a character home actually needs.
Yes. A character interwar home carries many notes, and a clear building report separates the significant issue, failing render, a delignified roof or transitional damp, from the cosmetic, giving you a concrete basis to negotiate.
Also available as a combined building and timber pest inspection in Inglewood — 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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