Building Inspections, Auckland Building Inspectors

Are you buying a new home in Auckland, or a brick and tile house?

One common mistake home buyers make, is not getting a building inspection on a new home, even when it does have a master builders warranty. A warranty gives you more reason to get the home inspected, because if any issues with the property are detected, it should be covered by the warranty.

Typical problems found in new homes during a inspection, are plumbing leaks where the plumber hasn’t fitted off the joins and pipe connections correctly. We quite often come across shower leaks on the back of the mixer… and after a few uses of the new shower water begins to appear on carpet in the room or hallway behind the shower. Even worse, the water is leaking into an external wall. Another common type of leak is through the roof or windows.

Buying a brick, concrete or solid block home. Get a building inspection:

Yes, a brick home will have a cavity system to allow water to drain out, and air to circulate in, but  it doesn’t mean the house doesn’t leak. We recently did a building inspection on a brick home in Auckland, and the carpet grip was moist. It turns out there was a crack in the slab right in the corner of the home and water was getting into the home due to the ground level outside being to high (to the base of the bricks… no ground clearence). Another inspection revealed subsidence in the ground… you could see under the slab and nothing was supporting the external load bearing wall! Crazy.

If you are trying to save money before buying the house, at minimum you should ask your building inspector to give you a price on a verbal inspection (no report). Buy carefully!!