How Long Does Building Inspection Takes?

A very common question asked by property buyers is that how long building inspection will take and answer depends on many factors. A building inspection process can be divided into parts

Physical Inspection: In this part of the inspection, the inspector visits the building site, accesses the building in detail, and notes down the observation. This part takes good 1-3 hours based on the factors explained later.

Report Making: In this part, the building inspector organizes the observations, does the calculation based on the observation, refers to the guidelines if necessary, and prepares the report. This part also can take 1-3 hours based on the factors explained. Some companies have developed software to cut the time in recording the observations and report writing.

Overall a genuine building inspection takes 2-6 depending upon the size of the property, Age of the property, Type of property, and type of inspection.

• Size of property: This directly proportionate factor meaning – Bigger the property, the more time it will take for inspection. A single bedroom flat will always take less time to inspect as compare 5-6 bedroom mention. 
• Age of property:  Inspection time increases with the age of the property. The simple reason for is that older building tends to develop defects with time.  the most common building defects in the old property are water damage, water leakages, cracks, and termite infestation. A building inspector has much more time to access the severity and consequences of each defect found in the building.
• Type of Property: The type of the property influence the inspection duration in different ways as demonstrated in the following examples.

Example 1: For the same number of rooms, A complex duplex takes much more time than a simple single-story house. One reason is that a duplex houses more parts such as floor slabs, staircases, safety railing, etc. another reason is that its design is complicated making it difficult to inspect.          

Example 2: Even for similar properties, buildings with more floor levels always take more time to inspect than a building with floors at the same levels.

Example 3: For tile roofs, it takes more time for inspection as each tile has to be inspected. Whereas in the case of colorbond, it takes less time for building inspection.

• Type of inspection: Different types of inspections take different times to be completed. For example, a building and pest inspection will always take more time as compared to a simple building inspection. The former involves 2 inspections in 1. If the building inspector is using the tools instead of standard visual inspection, It will also affect the duration of the inspection.

Besides the factors mentioned above,  the building inspection duration is affected by the experience and sincerity of the building inspector.  A sincere and professional building inspector will give due time to inspection and will not rush through it. 

It does not matter how long building inspection takes, it is must when buying a property. Building Inspection Council helps Australian property buyers with genuine building inspectors.  Click here for free quotes.