Water problems are one of the most common issues found during pre purchase building inspections in Melbourne. It can severely damage your walls, floors, and foundations for starters.
Showers that have yet to become sealed will leak water internally with the water getting into wall cavities and in most cases result in rot.
What’s worse, those water leaks and damages can go unnoticed for years without you being none the wiser?
Some symptoms of water damage from leaking taps, baths, showers, or another water source could be:
- Warping in your ceiling, walls and floors
- Damage to your carpet and furniture
- Moisture or condensation in a room above or below
- Mould or musty odour that smells like a wet dog
- An excessively high-water bill
- Tiles lifting
How Can You Check Water Leakage?
Whether you’re having a pre purchase building and pest inspection or not, let’s start with the basics.
- Walk around and check you do not have any leaking taps in or out of your home or business. If you do, organise your landlord or a licensed plumber to fix them for you.
- Next, check your Flexi hoses.
- These are the hoses that connect toilets and sinks. They also have a habit of leaking. Or worse, bursting (that of which you’ll know about!)
- If your Flexi hoses are showing signs of fraying or weak spots, replace them ASAP.
- Check the fittings and pipes connected to the wall and the surrounding areas too. Checking the fittings is something homeowners, landlords, and even a small majority of licensed pest and building inspectors miss due to inexperience.
- Another great tip to minimise water damage is to turn off all your water mains if you’re planning on being away from home for a long while.
- Our pre-auction and pre-purchase building inspections involve the following:
- Moisture meters to determine the level of moisture in the building materials, which may indicate rising damp or water leaks
- Thermal imaging cameras are used to detect the slight temperature variations that termites or other pests give out. Termi-track movement detector can check for movement inside wall cavities or floor spaces. Thermal imaging cameras can detect slight temperature variation to assist with leak detection or air leakage.
- Laser technologies to assess the floors and walls level to check if the building is showing signs of subsiding.
- The inspection will also evaluate visual defects and functional operation of the building’s fixtures.
- Assess structural elements and non-structural elements in the sub-floor areas, external of the buildings, roof space areas and internal of the premises if access is available
- If the roof linings or outer walls are inaccessible, a drone can be used to assess the condition of these elements at an additional cost.
If you are having difficulty in carrying out pre-purchase building inspections by yourself, it’s high time to call in a professional. At White Building Reports, All the building Inspections and pre-purchase home inspections are carried out as per Australian regulations and standards.
Feel free to call us on 0418 322 925 for more information.
