Built a brand new home in Perth? Don’t skip the Building Inspection.
If you’re not a building professional with some knowledge of building codes and regulations, there’s a good chance that you’d miss some important issues if you relied on your own visual inspection of the property you’re planning to buy. Not all sellers are transparent about the defects in their property, so you’ll need to exercise caution and ensure to have the property inspected by a Professional Building Inspector before signing the sales contract.
It might come as a shock to you, but even newly built homes should be treated the same way. In fact, it’s important to ensure these inspections are carried out periodically during the build so that issues can be identified and corrected before any further work continues. You may be wondering, why the property would need to be inspected if the build is handled by a reputable Perth Home Builder? Remember, the site supervisor cannot be there every hour of every day during the build and with the multitude of different subcontracted tradesman coming in and out things can get overlooked.
The fact is that construction flaws are common in new housing. It’s inevitable when you consider variables like rising material and labour costs, construction shortcuts, contract deadlines, and sloppy workmanship. Contrary to popular belief, newly built houses aren’t devoid of defects.
When it comes to building a new home in Perth, there are a lot of things to consider during the planning stage. The materials to use, the time it will take, the budget to work with, the quality of tradesmen available and much more. However, one of the most important things you should be considering, is when to conduct the building inspection. In particular, the Under Construction Inspection & Practical Completion Inspections.
Under Construction Inspection
Before moving on from one aspect of the build to another, it is important to make sure that everything is correct and according to the plan, contract and Australian Standards.
An “under construction” building inspection will involve the examination of many different factors. These mainly include the slab, frame or brickwork and roof structure.
Practical Completion Inspection
Once your new home is completed, a final building inspection on the overall finish and function of the building will be conducted – this is known as the Practical Completion Inspection. This is the stage for checking the nitty gritty details of the building plan and ensuring everything has been completed in accordance with the contract.
A new build may be more structurally sound compared to older structures, but it doesn’t mean they’re without problems. Keep in mind that building faults can be difficult to see at first glance and can go unnoticed for years.
Nothing will ever run 100% perfectly during a new home build, and the last thing you want is to end up with expensive problems after handover that could have been easily identifiable if a building inspection was conducted during the early build stages.
