Things We Do Not Inspect During A Building and Pest Inspection
Know what to expect with your building and pest inspection
Booking a building and pest inspection? It's important to know what's not included in the inspection to ensure you make the necessary arrangements.
Understanding the scope of a building and pest inspection
In Queensland, building and pest inspectors must work in accordance with guidelines set by Australian Standards. These guidelines outline exactly what building and pest inspectors can and can't check for at a property.
Under Australian Standards, a building and pest inspection can only be a visual inspection. This means building and pest inspectors cannot move, dismantle, remove or break apart any objects to see what's happening behind a concealed area. Such as stored goods in sheds, furniture, lifting up flooring or removing wall coverings. Doing so is considered an "invasive inspection" and is generally not practical during building and pest inspections.
Other items in the house cannot be inspected under Australian Standards as it is outside the scope of the building and pest inspectors qualifications. These items are outlined below.
1. Electrical wiring and household appliances
Building and pest inspectors are not electricians. As such, they are not qualified to check any electrical wiring or household appliances under Australian Standards.
This means inspector cannot assess the safety or condition of your electric wiring, switches, power points or any appliances around the home. Such as solar panels, dishwashers, air conditioning, smoke alarms, ovens and other electrical appliances.
Inspectors can check if the electricity is connected. At Dedant Building and Pest Inspectors, our inspectors also take a photo of the switch board to include in the report with a note about whether a safety switch is installed.
Obvious safety hazards like exposed wiring are noted by our inspectors but they cannot test and check items.
If you are concerned about the fire and safety standards of the electrical work or functionality of appliances within your home, we suggest hiring a qualified electrician.
2. Plumbing
Similar to the above, our inspectors are not qualified plumbers. This means we cannot look at water pressure, whether the hot water system works, pipe connections, whether toilets are prone to clog, whether your shower leaks and etc.
Our inspectors will turn on taps to check water is connected to the property and if there are any obvious signs leaking. We also use a thermal imaging camera and moisture meter to determine areas of abnormal high moisture, particularly in wet areas like bathrooms.
For a comprehensive look at your plumbing, a qualified plumber will be able to advise you.
3. Gas
During our inspections, we do not look at gas, fireplaces or chimneys. Anyone who installs, inspects or alters any part of a gas system must have a gas inspection certificate.
Gas is generally found in water heating, ovens, stoves and other appliances. However, as gas is both flammable and toxic, it comes with an inherent risk.
The risk of a gas leak, fire or explosion is too great to ignore. If you are concerned about gas appliances within your home, it's best to contact the relevant experts.
4. Pools
It is important to get regular pool safety inspections, as pools can be dangerous if proper safety standards are not met, particularly for people 5 or under.
This expert will examine the pool shell, equipment and fencing. A pool safety inspection might also need to be conducted. Typically, pools are not inspected during a building and pest inspection.
At Dedant, we can organise your swimming pool inspection for you. In most cases, we are able to coordinate the pool inspection to take place alongside your building and pest inspection.
5. Risk of natural disasters
Under Australian Standards, building and pest inspectors cannot provide any commentary on the risk of natural disasters. Such as flooding, earthquake, hurricanes, mudslide or any other natural disaster that impacts the structural integrity of the property.
This information can often be found on your local council website. You can find the relevant flood map for your area below:
6. Toxic or hazard substances
At Dedant, we will note whether the house is likely to contain hazardous matertial such as asbestos or meth contamination.
Asbestos was a common material in building until the late 1980s. After which, many similar materials were used during the building process. For this reason, it is impossible to identify asbestos without further investigation and testing.
We provide both asbestos testing and meth residue testing as addtional services to a building and pest inspection.
7. Restricted areas
Our inspector's first consideration is always their health and safety. Thus, they will not go to or inspect any area that is not safe or reasonable to access.
For example, a floor with broken glass or nails sticking out is an unsafe area, an area with loose or broken asbestos or a roof void with foil insulation.
Likewise, inspectors cannot conduct an invasive inspection of your property. This means they cannot look inside walls, behind cupboards, inside eaves or by lifting floorboards etc.
Similarly, we cannot move furniture, remove screw bolts or cut holes in anything.
Contact us today
At Dedant, we provide quality building and pest inspections, annual timber pest inspections, pest control, handover inspections, termite treatment and management, meth testing and asbestos testing.
We have been servicing Brisbane, Redland Bay, Moreton Bay, Gold Coast, the Scenic Rim, Sunshine Coast, Ipswich and Logan since 2009.
Contact us on 07 3807 0122 or via our website.
