Same Day Report GUARANTEED or Your Money Back !
Same Day Report GUARANTEED or Your Money Back !
We carry out pre-purchase building and pest inspections across Geelong, from the older streets of Geelong West to the new estates at Armstrong Creek. Every inspection is done by a VBA-registered building practitioner. The building inspection follows AS 4349.1 and the timber pest inspection follows AS 4349.3.
You get the written report the same day, so you can take it to your conveyancer, the agent or the vendor before the cooling-off period or auction date runs out.
Most of the homes we inspect in Geelong fall into three groups, and each tends to fail in its own way.
In Geelong West and Newtown, a lot of what comes up for sale is Victorian and Edwardian weatherboard on timber stumps. Many have been extended at the rear, sometimes more than once, and the junction between old and new work is where we look hardest.
Belmont and Highton are mostly 1970s and 1980s brick veneer: a timber frame, a single skin of brick and a tiled roof. They are generally sound, but roof coverings, wet areas and stormwater are now 40 to 50 years old.
Armstrong Creek and Charlemont are newer slab-on-ground estates. The homes are young, but builder defects and poor site drainage are common.
Salt-air corrosion. Near the water at Clifton Springs, Barwon Heads and Ocean Grove, salt eats through roof screws, gutters, window winders and hinges much faster than it does inland. Rusted fixings let water into the roof space, and rusted gutters overflow into eaves and wall cavities. New roof fixings typically cost a few hundred dollars to around $1,500. Replacing gutters and downpipes on an average house runs roughly $3,000 to $6,000.
Damp and perished stumps. In the older weatherboards we check moisture levels in the subfloor, brick chimneys and any masonry additions, and we check each stump we can reach. Timber stumps rot at ground level, and old red gum stumps sink. The signs inside are uneven floors, sticking doors and cracked plaster. Damp also draws termites. Replacing a handful of stumps costs a few hundred dollars each. A full restump is commonly $15,000 to $35,000 or more.
Slab edge heave. Armstrong Creek sits on reactive clay that swells when wet. When water collects at the edge of the slab, from garden beds against the wall, downpipes discharging at the base or paving that falls towards the house, the slab edge lifts. Look for diagonal cracks above doors and windows and doors that bind. Fixing the drainage early usually costs $1,500 to $8,000. Left alone, it becomes a structural engineer's report and a much larger repair.
We inspect every accessible area of the property:
The timber pest inspection covers subterranean termites, borers and fungal decay, including conditions that make termite attack more likely.
You receive a photographic report with each defect rated by severity, so you can see quickly which items affect the price and which are routine maintenance.
Geelong, Geelong West, Newtown, Belmont, Highton, Grovedale, Armstrong Creek, Charlemont, Ocean Grove, Barwon Heads, Clifton Springs and Lara.
From $550 for a combined building and pest inspection. The final price depends on the size of the home and how it is built.
Same-day report guaranteed or your money back.
We work seven days a week. Call with the address and your deadline and we will give you the earliest available time.
Yes. A building inspection does not assess termite activity or timber decay. Our standard Geelong inspection includes both, in one visit and one price.
Yes. Come for the last 15 to 20 minutes and the inspector will walk you through what was found.