October 27, 2022
It costs a pile of money to build a new home, and there’s plenty of risks to be considered well before you decide on a builder. Some of those risks are detailed in an earlier blog post, while others are not quite so obvious.
Luckily for me I happen to be a tradie, not a construction trade mind you, but still good enough to have a thorough understanding of how to interpret engineering drawings, amongst other things. Having these skills has certainly proved to be handy along the journey but I don’t kid myself that I know much at all about building regulations – which is the precise reason I employed and independent building inspector
Henley's inspection process
When I notified Henley that I would be using an independent inspector they sent me the following email:
Early on in the construction process I did a few drives by my site and everything looked great. On a couple of occasions there were workers on site doing excavation and form work for the concrete slab. All were happy to chat and all appeared to be doing a great job. Despite that I decided that it would be appropriate to have a pre-pour inspections done. Pleasingly, despite there being a number of items identified in the report, all appeared to be relatively minor.
When I received the report, I immediately forwarded it to Henley and requested photographic evidence that the issues had been rectified. As of the date of publication I have not received a response from Henley. That was 2 month ago.
Frame up, roof on
If you’ve been reading my monthly construction reports you’d know I’ve been happy with the works occurring on site but as I’m not an expert I decided to have a pre plaster inspection done.
As pointed out in Henley’s inspection process, I am obligated to send a copy of the inspection report/defect list to my construction CSA within 2 business days of the inspection taking place. When I submit the report I receive the following, auto generated email:
The report identified 26 defects. Many of these defects are relatively minor, others are more concerning. For example, item 14 from the report details a structural issue with a load bearing truss. It is 9 business days since I sent the report to Henley and I finally received their response this afternoon. I had planned on publishing the inspection report today, however, as I have received the response today I will publish both the report and Henley’s response early next week.
Relative to the costs, both in terms of time and money, the cost of an independent building inspector is relatively modest. NHI charge roughly $500/inspection, not a lot if it helps you sleep better in your new home.