Building Inspection Greensborough

A pre-purchase building inspection in Greensborough costs $595 inc. GST with Melba Building Inspections, or $650 inc. GST with a timber pest inspection included, and the report comes back to you the same day with photos. Reports are prepared with reference to AS 4349.1.

Greensborough is not a suburb you can inspect off a template. Most of it was built between the 1950s and the 1970s, it sits on old sedimentary rock with heavy clay soils weathered over the top, and a great many blocks fall away towards the Plenty River. That combination throws up a fairly predictable set of problems, and knowing what they are before you open the front door is half the job.

What Greensborough was built, and when

Greensborough had fewer than a thousand residents in the 1930s. It now has a bit over 21,000. Almost all of that growth happened in the post-war decades, and the housing shows it. Greensborough Plaza opened in 1976, which is a fair marker for when the suburb had largely filled in.

So the typical Greensborough house on the market today is single-storey brick veneer, 50 to 65 years old, timber framed, with a terracotta or concrete tile roof, timber-framed windows, and either a concrete slab or timber stumps depending on how the block sits. Closer to the town centre and the station there are units and townhouses, plus a steady trickle of newer infill on subdivided quarter-acre blocks.

Those two kinds of property need very different attention. A 1968 brick veneer wants someone in the subfloor and the roof space. A 2019 townhouse wants someone looking hard at waterproofing, drainage, balustrades and the standard of the workmanship.

The soil under Greensborough, and why the houses crack

Greensborough sits on Silurian siltstone and sandstone, the same old rock that runs under most of Melbourne's north-east. The soils that weather off it are typically duplex: a sandy or loamy topsoil over a heavy clay subsoil. Clay like that swells as it takes up water through winter and shrinks back as it dries through summer. Shallow footings sitting in it lift and drop with the seasons, year after year.

That movement is behind most of the cracking a buyer gets shown at an open for inspection here. The usual signs are:

• Stair-step cracks through the brickwork, generally running out of the corners of window and door openings
• Doors and windows that jam in August and swing free in February
• Cornice pulling away from the ceiling, and gaps opening at the skirtings
• Floor tiles drumming or lifting where a slab has flexed
• Fresh render or patching in one spot, which usually means somebody has already been here once

The question is never whether the house has cracks. Nearly all of them do. The question is whether the movement is still active, how far it has gone, and what is driving it. So I check crack width and pattern, look for old patching that has reopened, run levels across the floors, and then go hunting for the cause: a leaking stormwater line, a downpipe discharging straight into the ground beside a footing, a hot water overflow, ground that falls back towards the house, or a large tree pulling moisture out of the clay on one side.

The tree part matters more in Greensborough than in most places. There are a lot of mature eucalypts through these streets, and Banyule protects a good deal of vegetation through its planning overlays, so felling the tree is often not an option the new owner will have. Worth knowing before you bid, not after.

Sloping blocks, cut and fill, and retaining walls

The land falls away towards the Plenty River and the escarpment on the edge of the town centre, so a lot of Greensborough blocks slope. That gives you split-level houses, cut-and-fill building pads, stepped footings, subfloors that are shallow at one end and deep at the other, and a great many retaining walls.

Retaining walls deserve their own paragraph. In Victoria a retaining wall a metre or more high needs a building permit, and so does any wall supporting adjoining land or forming part of other building work. Plenty of what is holding up driveways, terraces and the neighbour's yard around here went in over a weekend without one. On site I am looking at whether the wall is leaning or bulging, whether sleepers or blocks have failed, whether there is any drainage behind it, and whether it is quietly carrying a structural load it was never built for. Replacing a failed wall on a sloping block is not a small bill.

Fill is the other one. Where a pad has been cut into the slope on one side and filled on the other, the house can be founded on two quite different materials and will move differently at each end. Add surface water running down the slope into a subfloor and you have the start of a long, expensive argument with your own house.

Land along the Plenty River and the creek corridors carries planning overlays, and parts of the suburb near the green wedge sit in designated bushfire prone land. I am a building inspector, not a town planner, so I will tell you what I can see and point you to your conveyancer for the property's planning certificate.

The rest of what turns up in a Greensborough inspection

• Asbestos-era materials. Anything built before the mid-1980s can contain asbestos cement. Eaves linings, sheeting behind tiles in old bathrooms and laundries, the backing board behind a meter box, shed roofing, boundary fences. Manufacture and use was banned nationally at the end of 2003. I record what looks suspect and where it is. I do not take samples, because confirming it is a job for a licensed asbestos assessor.
• Tile roofs past their bedding. A 1960s or 1970s tile roof is now well over fifty years old. The tiles themselves often have life left in them. The mortar bedding and pointing along the ridges and hips usually does not, most have no sarking underneath, and valley irons rust through. That is where the water gets in.
• Original wet areas. An untouched 1970s bathroom has no waterproofing membrane as we would understand one today. Shower bases, hobs and the wall behind them are where the damage tends to start.
• Old switchboards. Ceramic rewireable fuses, no safety switch, and occasionally some rubber-insulated cable still in service. Where a property needs a proper electrical or plumbing check I arrange it through licensed tradespeople. I do not carry out that work myself.
• Termites. Coptotermes acinaciformis is the damaging species through Melbourne's north-east, and the bush corridors along the Plenty River give it good habitat. Timber subfloors, garden beds built up against brickwork, soil sitting above the damp course and old timber retaining walls are the way in. Timber pest work references AS 4349.3, and it is $55 on top of a building inspection.

What it costs

Prices are fixed, quoted before booking, and include GST. Greensborough and the suburbs around it are the core of the service area, so getting out here is straightforward.

Who does the inspection

My name is Nathan Maries. I have 23 years in construction, starting as a 16-year-old apprentice carpenter in 2003. I ran my own building company, Melba Building Services, from 2007 to 2017 across hundreds of renovations, extensions and fit-outs. Since 2017 I have worked as a project manager delivering construction inside occupied buildings, including more than 20 occupied retirement villages around Melbourne. Builder registration is in progress and I will not claim it until it is issued.

The 24 reviews on Word of Mouth averaging 4.7 out of 5 are from that building work between 2013 and 2017, not from inspections, and I would rather say so than let you assume otherwise.

You get your report the same day, with photos of anything worth knowing about, and I will ring you and talk through it. If you want a hand with a Greensborough property, send through the address and your timing and I will check the calendar and let you know where I can fit it in. Call 1300 489 150 or email nathan@melbabuildinginspections.com.au.

Common questions

How much does a building inspection cost in Greensborough?

A pre-purchase building inspection in Greensborough is $595 inc. GST, or $650 inc. GST with a timber pest inspection included. Prices are fixed and quoted before booking, and the report comes back the same day with photos. Building stage inspections are $495 per stage and defect reports start at $450.

Why do so many Greensborough houses have cracked brickwork?

Because Greensborough sits on clay soils that swell in winter and shrink in summer, lifting and dropping shallow footings year after year. The cracking that results usually runs in a stair-step pattern out of the corners of window and door openings. Most of it is cosmetic and long settled, some of it is active and getting worse, and telling those two apart is the point of the inspection.

Do I need a timber pest inspection in Greensborough?

For most Greensborough properties, yes, and it is only $55 on top of the building inspection. Coptotermes acinaciformis is the damaging termite species through Melbourne's north-east and the bush corridors along the Plenty River give it good habitat. Older houses with timber subfloors, built-up garden beds and timber retaining walls are the ones most at risk.

Can you inspect a Greensborough property before a Saturday auction?

Yes, the Auction-Ready Express inspection is $650 inc. GST and is built for short notice before an auction. Send through the address and the auction date and I will check the calendar and let you know where I can fit it in. Call 1300 489 150.

Do you check retaining walls and sloping blocks?

Yes, retaining walls are part of a standard inspection on a sloping Greensborough block. I look at whether a wall is leaning, bulging or rotting, whether there is drainage behind it, and whether it is carrying a structural load. In Victoria a retaining wall a metre or more high needs a building permit, so it is worth asking the vendor what approvals exist.

Which suburbs around Greensborough do you cover?

Melba Building Inspections covers Greensborough and the surrounding north-east of Melbourne. That includes Eltham, Diamond Creek, Montmorency, Watsonia, Bundoora, Macleod, Rosanna, Heidelberg, Ivanhoe, Hurstbridge and Doreen.

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