What we look for in Leeming, and why it differs from the suburb next door. 14.2 km from the CBD, 9.3 km from the coast, postcode 6149.
Leeming was agricultural until the 1970s, laid out by a surveyor of that name in 1886 and gazetted in 1971. Construction started around 1975 and ran through to the mid 1980s, built in stages. The Findlay Road area first. Then east, west and south.
Staged construction over a decade means the era varies across the suburb rather than sitting at one point, and a 1976 house and a 1985 house are not the same proposition. Establish which stage a property belongs to, because it tells you roughly what to expect before anything else does.
The stock is brick and tile detached on large lots. Forty to fifty years old. Generous blocks. Roof tiles that have been up since the seventies or early eighties, on fixings nobody has checked. Wiring at or past its expected life. Showers where the waterproofing was never designed to last this long.
Asbestos era materials are more likely in the earliest stages than the later ones, which is another reason the build year matters.
Ken Hurst Park is the local feature, fifty three hectares of conservation bushland set aside in the early 1990s beyond Roe Highway. That is retained permanently rather than temporarily, and blocks near it carry a bush edge with the fire and ember considerations that brings.
Ground is Jandakot area sand over clay, generally free draining, with some low and wet pockets. Where a block sits within that pattern is worth knowing.
The suburb splits across three local governments, so confirm which council holds the approval records for a particular address.
Ken Hurst Park is the driver on the eastern side. Fifty three hectares of it. Fifty three hectares of conservation bushland is permanent habitat, holding established colonies that cannot be cleared away, and blocks against it face steadier pressure than the interior streets.
Sand over clay is the other factor. Where the clay sits shallow, water stays. The sandy sections drain and are relatively unfavourable. Where clay sits closer to the surface, ground holds water longer after rain and cracks as it dries, giving covered access toward footings.
Forty and fifty year old gardens supply the rest. Large lots mean long perimeters. Buried timber, old stumps, and beds banked against wall bases for decades. Reticulation running longer and in more places than it would on a small block.
Barriers from construction have long finished, and on stock that has changed hands a few times most were never replaced.
A large block takes time to walk properly and both assessments need the same circuit. The perimeter, the drainage, the bush boundary and the roof are one job rather than two. Reported under AS 4349.1 and AS 4349.3.
Where a property adjoins Ken Hurst Park, buyers usually want that boundary considered specifically, since conservation bushland brings pest pressure and ember exposure to the same edge and neither is going away.
Large lots are drawing subdivision, so we do handover inspections on new rear dwellings and condition records for the original house during the excavation. Ask which stage the house came from before anything else.
Leeming sits on the Bassendean dune system — deep leached grey quartz sand, almost pure, and very free draining. Bassendean sand is about as unreactive as a building site gets, so seasonal footing movement is rarely the story here. The water table is the story. Parts of this system sit over the Gnangara Mound and the standing water level can be within a couple of metres of the surface.
What that means in practice, on a house in Leeming:
Landform is assigned from the suburb's position on the Swan Coastal Plain rather than from a site soil test. It tells you what to expect, not what you have. A site classification to AS 2870 is a different exercise and a different report.
Ken Hurst Park is the fixed point most people in Leeming navigate by. Buildings like it are useful to an inspector for a duller reason: they date the area. Whatever era put that up is usually the era that put up the houses around it, and the construction methods of that decade are what we expect to find in the roof.
Bull Creek sit on the same ground as Leeming, so the footing behaviour and the drainage problems tend to repeat across all of them. If you are comparing houses across those suburbs, you are largely comparing the same site conditions.
Murdoch is 2.4 km away but sits on the Spearwood dune system; Bateman is 3.0 km away but sits on the Spearwood dune system; Jandakot is 3.1 km away but sits on the Spearwood dune system; South Lake is 3.6 km away but sits on the Spearwood dune system; North Lake is 4.1 km away but sits on the Spearwood dune system. That is the useful thing about this part of Perth: the ground can change inside a few kilometres, and with it what an inspection is looking for.
On site classification: any soil zone quoted for a suburb is indicative, inferred from geography rather than surveyed. A real AS 2870 classification comes from geotechnical work on your actual block and can differ from the one next door. We report what we observe; we do not read your soil class off a map.
The inspection is visual and non-invasive, over the readily accessible areas, reported to AS 4349.1. Our inspectors physically enter the roof space, as long as there is sufficient access. Report within 24 hours of the inspection.
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Flat fee, the same in Leeming as anywhere: $440 inc. GST for a pre-purchase building inspection, or $616 inc. GST with the timber pest scope added in the same visit. Full price list →
9.3 km inland through Melville, Leeming is off the worst of the coastal strip, so the fee spreads wider: an older tiled roof still gets checked for salt corrosion, but drainage, the wet areas and the way the Melville ground moves take up more of the visit.
Pre-purchase building inspection in Leeming →
Building and pest inspection in Leeming →
Yes. Our inspectors physically enter and inspect the roof space, as long as there is sufficient access to do so safely. Where access is restricted, the report says so plainly rather than implying we saw more than we did.
Leeming is 9.3 km from the coast — outside the highest-exposure band, but close enough that salt-driven delignification is worth checking in an older tiled roof.
Within 24 hours of the inspection itself, not 24 hours from booking. On a pre-purchase or pre-settlement job that timing is the whole point, because your leverage disappears once you are committed.
We would rather you checked than took our word for it. These are the bodies that actually hold the records and set the rules:
Tell us about the property and what you need. We'll come back to you with a firm quote and a time.
PERTH