Pre Purchase Building and Timber Pest Inspections Should be Made Compulsory When Buying a Home
The photograph shows the damage that timber pests can cause to structural timbers.
This photograph was taken during a recent Pre Purchase Structural Inspection.
The termite inspection and treatment had been completed prior to the sale of the home.
The Real Estate Agent told my client that it was not neccasary to have a structural inspection conducted. Lucky for my client they decided not to listen to the advice of the agent and contacted ABEL Building Inspections for their independent Pre Purchase Comprehensive Building Inspection. What we found among other things was a considerable amount of structural damage to the ceiling joists spread across three rooms due to termite activity within the roof void.
The house in question was built in 2000 and my client was taken aback by my report because they thought this was not an old house.
Their words where how can termites cause so much damage in such a short time?
Unfortunatly 17 years can be a long time if the home has termite infestation that has gone unoticed. A termite colony can range from several thousand to several million with some as big as 15,000,000 termites in the colony.
A large termite colony can eat about a half of kilo of wood each day.This does not sound like much but multiplied by 365 days a year it can be a considerable amount of timber.
The best way to avoid termite infestation is to have regular Timber Pest Inspections. It is also wise to keep your pest control management upto date.
The poor current owner of this particular property is now looking at a repair bill of $20,000 up over which would have been my clients burden had they not called ABEL Building Inspections.
Image by Arthur Bell
