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 Sorrento is as much about the complexity of its homes as the salt they sit in. This affluent coastal suburb, wrapped around Hillarys Boat Harbour, runs to large, multi-level, high-value homes with pools and decks, basements and extensive glazing, and the building inspection to AS 4349.1 reads that complexity closely, because on an elaborate home the more junctions there are, the more places a defect can hide.
Complexity is the central factor. A multi-level home with a pool and a deck over habitable space, a basement or cellar, and long runs of glazing carries far more waterproofing and weatherproofing junctions than a simple house, and each is a place a rushed detail fails expensively. The building inspection reads the wet-area and pool waterproofing to AS 3740 and the membranes under decks and podiums, the basement or cellar for water ingress and tanking, and the complex flat and skillion rooflines for their falls and box gutters. At this value, whether the quality behind the finishes matches the price is the central question.
The setting adds salt and ground. Sorrento takes the full marine air, so exposed metal and fixings are read for accelerated corrosion and the extensive glazing for its seals under wind-driven rain. Homes near Hillarys sit on flatter, sometimes reclaimed ground by the water, read for damp, while the elevated blocks behind are built up the limestone with retaining that holds the view, read for condition and drainage, and engineering.
The limestone is read where a home is founded on or cut into it, the footings for undermining and the base for salt attack near the ground. The older mid-century homes among the mansions are read for their era, with the asbestos, brittle tiled roofs and delignified framing flagged.
Because it reports to AS 4349.1, the building inspection excludes timber pests, and on Sorrento's watered, landscaped gardens the timber pest scope is worth adding in the same visit. The building inspection's value here is reading the waterproofing and build quality of an elaborate home as closely as the salt outside it, because at this level a missed defect is an expensive one.
We run the same inspection across the area, including nearby Marmion and Hillarys.
MISSING: phone number · Book online → · Flat $440 inc GST, report within 24 hours.
The waterproofing and the build quality behind the finishes. A multi-level home with a pool and a deck over habitable space, a basement and long glazing has many junctions where a rushed detail fails, so we read the wet-area and pool waterproofing to AS 3740 and the deck and podium membranes, the basement for ingress, and the complex rooflines for their falls.
Yes, where they are part of the property and accessible. Their waterproofing fails expensively when rushed, and Sorrento's large homes carry more of these wet zones than usual, so a deck over habitable space or a tanked basement takes close attention.
Because the more elaborate the design, the more junctions there are for water and defects to hide in. At this value the central question is whether the quality behind the expensive finishes matches the price, and complexity is where that is tested.
Yes. Sorrento takes the full marine air, so we read exposed metal and fixings for accelerated corrosion and the extensive glazing for its seals under wind-driven rain. On the coast, corrosion drives many defects.
It can. Homes near the harbour sit on flatter, sometimes reclaimed ground, which we read for damp, while the elevated blocks behind are built up the limestone with retaining, which we read for condition and engineering.
They can be. The flat and skillion rooflines rely on careful falls and membranes, and box gutters, and a leak tracks into the structure differently from a pitched roof. We read them for pooling and failure.
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.
Especially so. At this value a single missed waterproofing or structural defect can cost far more than the inspection, so reading the complex wet zones and build quality closely is where the report earns its keep.
In most of Sorrento, yes. The building inspection reports to AS 4349.1 and excludes pests, and the watered, landscaped gardens here still suit termites despite the free-draining limestone.
Yes. On a high-value home a clear building report separates the significant issue, basement or deck waterproofing or a failing flat roof, from the cosmetic, and gives you a concrete basis to renegotiate.
Also available as a combined building and timber pest inspection in Sorrento — 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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