Hi everyone, I’d really appreciate feedback from anyone who has opted for a private inspection.
Darbecca has offered to include the slab inspection with the frame stage at no additional cost, while having it done separately would be $510. I’m wondering if it’s okay to have a combined inspection. If issues are identified, how would they be addressed once the frame is already in place?
Any insights would be greatly appreciated.
IF something is wrong with they frame, they take it down and put it back up correctly!
FWIW looking at building in the next year or so and will definitely be getting independent building inspections at each stage. Ill be interested in timeliness of reporting too, so that i can be aware of issues and flag them prior to being billed for the the stage payment.
A previous builder years ago tried to rip me off at the footings stage (a very common ploy at the time) and tried to get away with using liquid nails on balcony structural bolts after they forgot to install them at the framing stage.
From things i read things havent improved with some builders.
Oh so the independent inspection idintified that they used liquid nails at the footing stage?
Btw how did you find good builder.
Ive only heard of mastertons
Wouldnt you also want a slab inspection just before its pored? The site inspections guy has many videos on incorrectly prepared (reo etc.) slabs.
Frankly I would not build a new home now, build quality is so bad, new homes in just a few years showing flaws. A solid older home i recon will give more longevity.
"Frankly I would not build a new home now"
The gospel
I would highly recommend pre-pour inspection. We used Darbecca too.
pre-poor inspection
Before the money runs out…
The trick with the slab inspection is that you want to get it done right before the pour. And this is a problem because potentially your concreter could be doing all preparations the day before. So you want your inspector to be flexible to help you with that.
There is a little point in doing a slab inspection once it is poured and certainly after the frame was installed.
The inspection should be before and after. And the grano or builder should supply all recpts time records of the concrete truck batches. There are standards for the whole process. The inspection process should address all of those IMHO. There are more cowboys in the concrete trade than in the rodeo circuit
We did ours through Darbecca in 2023 and did get our slab inspected before concrete was poured with some items picked up needing rectification. Majority of the rectifications were done on the spot as the concreter was onsite. Time between inspection and pour was about one day and this was the only stage where turn around needed to be quick.
As we were already spending so much on a new build, it did not make sense to us to skip the pre-pour inspection to save a few hundred. It’s much easier to rectify issues before slab is poured then after.
The slab is the most important part.That's a hint
The slab and pre-pour are different inspections. Pre-pour is far more important
For pre-pour it is important that the concreters are on site when the inspection is done so that they can rectify issues on the spot, as the pour is usually done the day after they finish the formwork. Reinforcing is pretty hard to rectify after the concrete has been poured!
For ours Darbecca went around with a spray can marking issues and the concreters tagged along behind them fixing on the go. They took before and after photos.
For this of course the builder/concreter needs to be cooperative and you need to ensure that they commit to this
The slab inspection is done after the pour and it is pretty hard to fix anything here
My brother had told me horror stories of how bad other concreters are at laying out a slab and then there is the quality of work. He has seem slabs 10degrees off square and some slabs that were short 200mm over 20M. Also slabs that crumbled at the edges due to air bubbles in the pour.
The thing that amazed me was how many "mistakes", shortcuts and general sloppiness there was on mine, even when they knew there was an inspector coming and they would have to fix it, things like steel touching the sides and ground and poking up higher than floor level, steel not tied properly, some steel even left out or wrong steel used, things put in backwards etc etc.
These guys supposedly do this stuff every day - why not just just do it properly the first time ?? I would have been embarrassed having an inspector walking around looking at what a rubbish job I had done.
My neighbor didn't get an inspector. The day before they poured I could see a side of the formwork had collapsed and was leaning out at 45 degrees. I pointed it out to the builder and my neighbor and they were like yeah whatever. It looked terrible after the pour and then a few weeks later I saw a guy there with a big grinder for hours cutting it square (and probably exposing steel in the process) !!
Sounds exactly 1000% percent exactly the same as what he has seen.
They have no idea what they are doing, so they cannot get it right as they do not know what is right.
Not directly answering your question, but here is some essential watching More info here: www.siteinspections.com.au/
If I were lucky enough to build my own house, I would definitely have it inspected at each stage.