Absolute Building Inspections Ltd will identify any current or potential future issues that can greatly affect the value of the property you are about to purchase. This means you can in most cases negotiate a lower price due to value of repairs that need to be done, or get repairs undertaken by vendor, or even pull out of purchase if defects are bad enough.
Remember – Absolute Building Inspections Ltd can save you literally thousands of dollars when purchasing your property – failure to get a building inspection can result in buying a home with hidden or unresolved issues that can cause you financial and emotional stress.
When you engage Absolute Building Inspections Ltd to do a pre-purchase /pre-sale building inspection there are a number of key elements of the dwelling that we will be focusing on. As a pre-purchase building inspection is generally a non – invasive visual inspection we rely heavily on the knowledge and experience of our building inspector’s to identify any faults or defects that may exist.
Ground levels are checked in relation to floor level , driveways checked for cracks ,fences are checked to ensure they are not leaning over and don’t need repairs. Retaining walls are checked to ensure they are relatively straight and not leaning over under load from ground.
Checking for general condition to interior and exterior. Roofing - Roofing materials ,gutters and chimneys. The roofing is a major component of the dwelling, we check for any rust if it is a steel roof and also fixings to ensure there are no leaks around nails or screws, ensure roofing underlay is fitted where applicable, check tiled roofs for cracked tiles or damaged degraded pointing to hip and ridge tiles, membrane roofing for any degradation or join delamination. Gutters are checked for rust, leaking at joins and corners, correct falls, adequate amount of downpipes and also any signs of overflowing. Flashings around chimneys and valleys are also checked for rust or leakage points to joins.
Key checks on quality of insulation, signs of any leaks through roof – installation of roofing underlay and quality of underlay, general condition of roof framing such as rafters or trusses. Exterior – Cladding systems, Windows doors and finishing trim Windows and cladding are key components in weathertightness of any dwelling. As such close attention is paid to quality of cladding detailing, protective coatings, and detailing of cladding joins and junctions. This is very critical when we are inspecting homes built between 1997 and 2004 and that have monolithic cladding such as fibre-cement sheet. When inspecting these types of homes we will also carry out a full leak detection survey and complete a full leak risk profile report on dwelling. Windows can also cause a lot of issues so particular attention is paid to sealing around perimeter of windows, window rubber quality, and any visual signs of leakage through bottom corners of window frames.
When checking the subfloor and foundations we check the following Piles: check that there are no rotten piles and all piles are structurally sound, timber framing- check for any borer ( any borer found we recommend full check by specialist pest inspection company ) in subfloor and check also for any rot or missing structure, insulation – check if any insulation is fitted to subfloor and if it is correctly fitted at the same time ventilation and ground moisture are checked and if required we may recommend plastic sheeting is laid to ground if excessive ground moisture under sub-floor.
Inspecting each room to check condition of floor walls and ceiling as well as general condition of services and systems. Making sure walls and floors are built to tolerances and NZ building standards. We check all doors and windows open and close correctly, and that all fittings and fixtures are in good working order and are fit for purpose.
Full visual check is carried out on these services – anything that appears broken , defective and or not correctly installed is highlighted in report – in the case of electrical this is a visual check only and any visual faults detected we will always recommend having a registered electrician check /assess. All plumbing fixtures such as taps and showers are checked for any leakage , and to check adequate pressure and also that waste pipes and vents are correctly fitted and wastes are draining satisfactorily.
Any defects are noted clearly in report with photos included where applicable. Where there is a visual fault with a specialist system or service such as electrical our inspectors may state in the report "Needs further investigation from registered electrician to determine cause and effect of fault".
If the dwelling is built between 1997 and 2003 with monolithic cladding ( sheet type – mainly fibre –cement sheet and polystyrene ) ABSOLUTE BUILDING INSPECTIONS LTD may recommend a full non-invasive leak detection survey to ensure dwelling is not a "Leaky Home ".If there are a lot of defects or concerns with any monolithic homes that we inspect we may advise a full extensive destructive weathertightness assessment to determine level of damage to home.
This involves determining risk factor of dwelling taking into account complexity of design , design features (such as lack of eaves ) and if dwelling has been constructed out of un-treated timber with no cavity behind cladding. The inspector will then carry out a full non-invasive survey utilising moisture probes. If any evidence of moisture penetration through building envelope is found the inspector may recommend a full invasive weathertightness survey to determine cause of leakage and any damage to structural integrity of dwelling.
