Building stage inspections

Slab, frame, lock-up, pre-plaster, practical completion. Problems found at frame stage cost a conversation. The same problems found after handover cost a dispute.

When you need it: You are building, and you want it checked as it goes up.

What it costs

$770 per stageinc. GST ($700 + GST)

Every stage covers the one before it

That sentence is the whole argument for staged inspections. A house is built in layers, and each layer hides the last. Reinforcement disappears under concrete. Framing disappears behind plaster. Waterproofing disappears under tiles. Tie-down connections disappear under insulation.

At handover, almost everything structural is invisible. An inspection then can only report on what is still showing, which is finishes.

This is contract work rather than AS 4349.1 work — that standard covers pre-purchase inspection of existing residential buildings and explicitly does not cover a building under construction.

The stages, and what is only visible at each

Pre-slab. Set-out, formwork, reinforcement placement and cover, service penetrations, vapour barrier, and the termite management system where one is being installed. Everything here is buried within days and stays buried for the life of the house.

Frame. The one that matters most. Wall frames, roof trusses or stick framing, bracing, and the tie-down chain from roof to footings. Building and Energy's own inspection of 123 sheet metal clad timber framed roofs found a low level of compliance in roof frame construction, and the failure mode is usually a chain that stops partway — correctly strapped at one connection and never carried down into what it is supposed to reach.

Lock-up, pre-plaster. Last look at the frame before it is closed. Services in walls, insulation and the fit of windows and doors, flashings, plus any framing that has been notched or drilled for pipework in ways it should not have been.

Pre-paint. Wet area waterproofing before tiling covers it, plasterboard fixing and finish, the cornice line, plus the state of surfaces before paint hides them.

Final handover. The defects list, covered on its own page.

Why the frame stage earns its fee twice over

Structural work at frame stage is accessible and unfinished, which makes it cheap to correct. The same work found after lining is a demolition job first and a repair second.

It is also the stage where documentation matters. Truss layouts, tie-down details and bracing plans should exist and should match what is standing on the slab. Where they do not, that discrepancy is far easier to raise while the frame is open than to argue about later from photographs.

What you get

A report per stage and photographed, then located, written against the approved plans and the applicable construction requirements rather than against a general impression. Where something needs the builder's engineer or the truss supplier to confirm a detail, the report says so rather than guessing.

Cost

A flat fee of $700 per stage. Most clients take pre-slab, frame and pre-paint as a minimum, and add lock-up on a two-storey build where there is more concealed structure to lose sight of.

Turnaround is agreed with you at booking. On a live site the useful report is the one that arrives before the next trade starts, and that is the timeframe we work to rather than a fixed promise.

Frame stage is the one that pays for itself

If you only commission one staged inspection, make it the frame. At frame stage the structure is complete but nothing is hidden: the footings have cured, the frame is up, the roof structure is on, and the plumbing and electrical rough-ins are in place, but no plaster, no cladding and no insulation have covered any of it. Every structural connection is visible and every one of them is cheap to fix while it is still exposed. The same defect found after lock-up means opening a wall; found at frame, it means a carpenter spending an hour. The cost of correction climbs steeply with every stage that buries the problem, which is the whole economic argument for inspecting before the cover goes on.

What goes wrong, and when it hides

Tie-down and bracing is the defect that matters most and hides fastest. The connections that hold the roof against wind uplift are a few brackets and nails, and they are visible at frame stage and invisible forever after. An under-specified tie-down found at frame is a bracket added. Found after a storm takes the roof, it is a catastrophe. Waterproofing to wet areas is the next: it goes in before the tiles, and once tiled it cannot be checked without destroying the finish, so the pre-tile inspection is the only practical chance to confirm it was done to the standard. Slab and footing issues, set-out errors, inadequate cover to reinforcement, and missing or bridged termite management all sit at the earliest stages and stay buried for the life of the house.

The stages and what only shows at each

Pre-slab, before the pour, is the reinforcement, the vapour barrier, the service penetrations and the termite system. Frame stage is the structure, the tie-downs and the bracing. Pre-plaster or lock-up, after wet-area waterproofing and before linings, is the last chance on the waterproofing and the concealed services. Practical completion is the finishes and the defect list before you sign off with the builder. Each stage inspects what the next one will bury, which is why a single inspection at handover can only ever report the finishes, the one layer that is still showing.

This is contract work, not a pre-purchase inspection

Staged inspections on a house you are building sit outside AS 4349.1, which covers pre-purchase inspection of existing buildings and expressly does not cover a building under construction. What guides a staged inspection is the approved plans, the National Construction Code, and the relevant Australian Standards for each trade. The inspector is checking the work against what was specified and what the code requires, and reporting to you, the owner, so you can have defects corrected while your contract and your leverage still hold. Once you have made the final payment and signed off, both are largely gone.

Why the builder's own supervisor is not enough

Every registered builder runs their own site supervision, and most do it conscientiously. But the supervisor works for the builder, and on a busy site they are managing trades, chasing materials, and keeping a program moving across a dozen jobs at once. Their job is to get your house built to a standard the builder is comfortable signing off on, within a budget and a timeline. That is not the same job as checking, on your behalf, that every stage meets the approved plans and the relevant standards before the next trade covers it up.

An independent staged inspection is not an accusation that the builder is cutting corners. Good builders welcome it, because a defect caught at frame stage is cheaper and less disruptive for them to fix than one found at handover, and a client who has had the work checked along the way is a client who signs off at the end without a fight. What the independent inspection gives you is a second set of eyes that answers only to you, at the points in the build where a problem is still visible and still cheap to correct.

What we are checking against

A staged inspection is not judged against the pre-purchase standard, because AS 4349.1 covers existing buildings and expressly excludes work under construction. The reference points are different: the approved plans and specifications, the National Construction Code, and the individual Australian Standards that govern each trade, from the slab and footings through to the waterproofing and the tie-downs. The inspector is checking that what has been built matches what was approved and what the code requires, and reporting it to you, the owner, while your building contract still gives you standing to have defects corrected.

That last point matters. A building contract typically obliges the builder to rectify defects raised during construction and at practical completion, but the practical burden of identifying them sits with you. What you do not raise, you accept. A staged inspection turns that burden into a documented, photographed defect list at each stage, which is a far stronger position than a vague sense that something did not look right.

The cost of a defect climbs with every stage

The economic logic of staged inspection is simple: the cost of fixing a defect rises steeply with every layer of construction that goes over the top of it. An under-specified tie-down bracket found at frame stage is a bracket added in an hour. The same fault found after the roof has gone on, the insulation is in, and the ceiling is sheeted is a demolition job. A waterproofing membrane that was not laid to standard is a quick re-do before the tiles go down, and a bathroom rebuild after they are on. A service penetration that was not sealed is a dab of sealant at rough-in and a wall opened up later.

None of these are exotic problems. They are the ordinary things that go wrong on ordinary sites when a trade is rushed or a detail is missed, and every one of them is cheap to fix at the right stage and expensive to fix at the wrong one. The inspection fee across the key stages is small against the cost of finding one buried structural defect after handover, which is the case it has to be measured against.

Which stages are worth inspecting

Not every build needs every stage inspected, and we will tell you honestly where the value is on yours. The two that earn their fee on almost any job are the frame stage, where the whole structure and every tie-down and bracing connection is visible and cheap to correct, and the pre-tile waterproofing check, which is the only practical chance to confirm the wet-area membranes before they are covered for the life of the house. On a single-storey slab-on-ground build those two catch most of what matters. On a two-storey build, or one with a suspended floor or a complex roof, the pre-slab and lock-up stages carry more weight, because there is more concealed structure to get wrong. We would rather steer you to the stages that matter on your build than sell you a full set you do not need.