About Us
ONTIME BUILDING REPORTS Melbourne carries out Pre-purchase Pest and Building Inspections generally within Bayside City, Port Phillip City, Stonnington City, Glen Eira City and Kingston City.
With a large number of dwellings within a short driving distance of each City, we can guarantee a premium Pre-purchase Inspection service, having the reports to you the same day or generally within 24 hours.
My team and I have carried out all manner of domestic building projects within these five municipalities since the mid-1970s. Together we have a vast knowledge of the particular conditions unique to each suburb. We also have an understanding of the timeline of building techniques used during each era from the early 1900s, which gives us the important knowledge to enable identification of all potential defects and other various potential dangers.
Between the three of us, we have just about seen everything there is to see regarding work, which has been both good and bad throughout the years within in the building industry.
Generally speaking, in the first part of the 1900s buildings were constructed very well with a conscious effort to build to a high standard, given labour costs were so much lower, relative to today’s cost of course.
From the mid-1930s to the mid '70s there was an absence of particular building regulations, a lack of specific engineering standards and a comprehensive oversight by the state governing bodies. For instance, concrete strip footing design was radically overhauled in the early to mid 1970s. It took some time for the concreters of the day to realise that they were required to comply with the new comprehensive design criteria.
Some contractors were quite happy to remove the steel reinforcement within the trenches just before a concrete pour, which made the concrete footing almost ineffective. This sort of practice was outlawed and Builders and Supervisors started being present for the concrete pours...
The process local authorities adopted were improved to protect both the builder and the clients' interest.
Therefore, due to these actions by various contractors, some structures were finished with either poorly placed or indeed no steel reinforcement, which rendered the concrete footings way below the standard intended by the authorities of the day.
There is a saying in the industry about the ‘good ole days’ of building and how things were done better. In some instances, this is true, however in many cases when doing renovations to older structures we can quickly see exactly how the dwelling was built, and what sort of standard the builder followed.
When we are inspecting your Apartment or your House for you, no matter the age of the Structure, we are constantly on the lookout for evidence of suspicious building practices.