A balcony roof left standing on a builder's prop
Why a temporary post under a balcony roof at lock-up is a structural item, not a tidy up job.
Guides 
All guides
Upstairs bedroom windows that open too far
The 125mm rule for first floor bedroom windows, and why we check it at fixing stage.
A stud cut through, found days before plaster
Services, studs and noggings: what a Cobbitty lock-up turned up inside the walls.
Brickwork hanging over the edge of the slab
Why more than 15mm of brick overhang is a major defect at handover.
A balcony drain smaller than the standard allows
Undersized balcony waste pipes, and why they matter on two storey homes over living space.
A driveway poured without saw cuts or isolation joints
How new concrete cracks when nobody tells it where to crack.
A ceiling stain under an upstairs shower
Tracing water from a first floor wet area to the room below, without lifting a tile.
Measuring a floor that has started to move
How we record floor movement so an engineer and a builder can act on it.
Timber cladding cast into concrete
Why timber should never sit in concrete or soil, and what to ask for when it does.
Buying an older house on Cobbitty's rural edge
Roofs, mortar and settlement cracking on established homes in south west Sydney.
A roof space with no insulation at all
What a buyer learns from ten minutes in the roof space.
Weep holes buried by the garden
The most common termite risk we photograph, and the easiest to fix.
An out of date termite notice in the meter box
What the notice tells you, and what to do when its date has passed.
Downpipes that empty against the slab
Roof water in the wrong place, and why it draws termites.