Hiring Contractors For Home Improvements
3 Vital Inspections To Organise Before Purchasing An Old House To Renovate
Tim Graham
Buying a run-down old house to renovate is a popular choice for many Australians. It's a great way to increase the value of your property investment and transform an unattractive and dated house into a modern, beautiful and comfortable home. If this is your first foray into this type of project, then you're no doubt keen to find a house that you can do this with.
While renovating old houses can be a highly profitable endeavour, it's not uncommon for them to be money traps that end up costing far more than you anticipated to complete. Being properly forewarned about potentially costly issues is the only way to avoid this frequent situation. Here are three vital inspections that you should organise before you commit to purchasing an old property.
1. Building inspection
Building inspections should ideally be undertaken when buying any property, but they are essential for older homes. They will give you a professional and realistic view of the condition of the home that you're thinking about buying. Without one, you're walking blindly into a project that could require extensive and expensive work that you haven't budgeted for.
Building inspectors will identify and major or minor structural problems that could make a house unsafe to live in, either now or in the future. They can also pinpoint any parts of the building that haven't been built to the meet building codes or health and safety regulations. Finally, they can ensure that the electrical and plumbing systems are functioning properly.
2. Pest inspection
Pest inspections are also something that it would be unwise to forego. Their main priority is to look for evidence of infestations by boring insects, such as termites, which can wreak havoc on any timber within the structure of the house or exterior features. They can also identify parts of the home that may have been compromised by termite infestations in the past.
3. Asbestos inspection
It's an unfortunate fact, but any home built prior to the 1980s is almost certain to contain some level of asbestos-containing materials. Asbestos was most commonly used in external cladding sheets, but it can also be found in plumbing pipes, cabinets, roof tiles and as backing for carpet or linoleum flooring.
The only way to ascertain where asbestos may be in a property is to have it inspected and tested by a certified contractor. It's unrealistic to expect to find an older home that's asbestos-free, but knowing the extent of its presence is important for both your safety and your budget. Asbestos needs to be removed and disposed of by specialist tradespeople, which can push up the cost of the project significantly, and accidentally unearthing it during renovations can pose a serious health risk to anyone who is nearby.
For more information on what's included in your building inspection report, contact your local inspection services today.
Share
Hello! My name is Richard and this is my new blog. On this blog, I hope to pass on some useful information about how to work with contractors. I recently decided that I wanted to give my property a complete overhaul. I wanted to have a new roof installed, the interior remodelled and the driveway repaired. I asked around and I put together a great team of contractors who could all work together to get the job done. However, that isn't to say there wasn't the occasion challenge during such a big project. I learnt a lot from the experience and I am really pleased with the work that the contractors carried out.