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 Mount Hawthorn is usually the structural reading of a consistent interwar home that has been improved. The suburb is a tightly held run of 1920s and 1930s Californian bungalows and workers' cottages, and the building inspection to AS 4349.1 reads the particular way those homes were built and, just as often, how well the near-universal renovations were carried out.
The interwar structure has a recognisable set of things to read. The walls are double brick, frequently tuck-pointed and finished in render at porches and parapets, and the building inspection reads that render for cracking and detachment, the masonry for movement against the shallow footings of the era, and the base of the walls for the rising damp that transitional damp-proofing allows. The roofs are terracotta tile close to a century old, and beneath them the hardwood framing is read for chemical delignification, sag and water entry, which is one of the defining structural questions on a home of this age.
Renovation is the other half of a Mount Hawthorn inspection. Owners keep the character front and extend behind, and, increasingly, add a second storey as families upsize in place. A second floor loads footings and walls sized for a single storey, so the building inspection follows that load path down, reading the new structure for deflection, the original walls for overloading and the junction for separation, and asking whether an engineer was involved and whether the work was approved. Retrofitted wet areas are read for the waterproofing that so often fails at the old-to-new join.
The lots are modest and closely built, so the inspection reads boundary conditions too: additions to the fence line, shared and tight drainage, and neighbours' garden beds against the footings, all of which bear on movement and damp.
The roof space takes the longest time, read for framing condition, water entry, past repair and delignification under the ageing terracotta.
Because it reports to AS 4349.1, the building inspection excludes timber pests, and on Mount Hawthorn'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 a consistent interwar home accurately and telling how sound its renovations really are.
We run the same inspection across the area, including nearby Osborne Park and Joondanna.
MISSING: phone number · Book online → · Flat $440 inc GST, report within 24 hours.
The interwar era and the renovations. We read the tuck-pointed double brick, the render, the terracotta roof and the transitional damp-proofing of a 1920s or 30s home, plus the junctions and load paths of the additions almost every home here has, reported to AS 4349.1 with the areas not safely accessed.
Because a second floor loads footings and walls sized for a single storey. We follow the load path down, reading the new structure for deflection, the original walls for overloading and the junction for separation, and we flag whether it looks engineered and approved.
It is read as one. The render at porches and parapets cracks and detaches from the masonry behind it, so we tap it for drummy sections and read where it has let water into the wall.
Because they are near a century old. The tiles are 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 the era of construction, because that changes the reading and the fix.
The junctions between the preserved front and the new work, the waterproofing of retrofitted wet areas, and whether the work was approved. Unapproved building passes to you at settlement.
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 Mount Hawthorn'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 renovated interwar home carries many notes, and a clear building report separates the significant issue, an overloaded wall or a delignified roof, from the cosmetic, giving you a concrete basis to negotiate.
Also available as a combined building and timber pest inspection in Mount Hawthorn — 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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