Pre-purchase building inspection in Kelmscott

Kelmscott is one of the four initial townsites of the Swan River Colony, gazetted in 1830 and established as a military outpost. It is also the suburb that in 2011 lost 72 homes to the Kelmscott-Roleystone bushfire on a total fire ban day — the largest single-fire house loss in WA history. The suburb bisected by the Canning River now contains rebuilt homes from 2011-2013, homes that survived the fire, older heritage-era fabric from the 1830 township, and scarp-edge homes on the rising ground to the east. A pre-purchase building inspection at Kelmscott identifies which of those conditions applies, because the read for each is different.

For a post-2011 fire rebuild the pre-purchase concern is the build quality and the current age. Homes rebuilt after the fire are now fourteen years old, approaching the window where first-generation AS 3740 waterproofing begins to reach its end. They were built on lots that were cleared by fire, and the ground preparation and building quality of the rebuild cohort is the pre-purchase read for those homes. We also note the fire-rebuild context in the report so it is a known part of the property history before the price is agreed.

For homes that survived the fire the pre-purchase concern is what a major fire event does to a home’s fabric even without direct combustion. Heat exposure at close range melts sealants, damages roofing materials and affects services, and a home that survived the 2011 fire adjacent to destroyed properties may carry that exposure in its fabric without it being visible on a walk-through. We read the roof, the external seals and the services of surviving older homes in the affected area with that context in mind.

For the Darling Scarp-edge homes to the east the pre-purchase concern is the slope. Retaining walls, site drainage and the subfloor on a steep scarp lot carry the gradient load, and the pre-purchase inspection reads those elements as structural concerns. And for heritage-era properties near the 1830 township core, the construction of those original colonial buildings earns its own heritage read.

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 Kelmscott, where fire history, heritage, river and scarp all shape the read, the inspection tells you which home you are buying. The report follows within 24 hours.

We run the same inspection across the area, including nearby Armadale and Seville Grove.