Victoria

New homes & Termite zones

An increasing number of councils across Australia are seeing the value in designating residential zones as termite prone areas in an effort to help local communities avoid costly repairs and horror surprises in the future. Victoria is the only Aus...
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Things to consider when building your first home

You might decide that rather than buying an established property as your first home, it would better suit you to build. Building your first home can be both an exciting and overwhelming experience. Building allows you to customise your home from t...
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Property Management and Smoke Alarms are Good Friends

Property management and smoke alarms are good friends. Or at least they should be. Worst possible scenario: Inaction can lead to deaths and a stint in prison. It’s a familiar story, even in developed countries, however. From one BBC report: “A...
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Safety Reversal Check For Automatic Garage Door

In most houses, the largest moving object is a garage door. Newer garage doors are often operated remotely through radio controls, electrical systems, pulleys and motors. Serious injury or death from being hit by a closing garage door or from bein...
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Asbestos Concerns? Call The Experts

Here’s an all too familiar story from the Newcastle Herald: A Glendale property is demolished after its owners found deadly loose-fill asbestos insulation. This type of asbestos was relatively popular in the1960s and 1970s. Science now tells ...
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Common defects found in homes

Are you buying a home or investment property? Here are some of the common defects that our building inspectors in homes. Termite damage The advantages of getting a vendor report before putting your house on the market. Termite damage was found ...
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The Politics Of Smoke Alarms

From 1993 to 2015, CSIRO conducted tests on smoke alarms but the public is yet to read the findings. This comes at a time when activists want ionised smoke alarms banned due to alleged issues with response times to common fires. In America, the alarm...
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What Does Jim Know About Building Inspections Anyway?

ACTUALLY, QUITE A BIT MORE THAN WE EVER REALISED! We recently discovered that Jim Penman’s dad was a forensic engineer. From an early age Jim’s father was investigating materials, structures and their components which failed o...
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Proposed New Tax To Help Home Owners Remove Asbestos

Did you know that 1 in 3 Australian homes contain asbestos? With home renovations on the rise, many Australian's are purchasing homes built before 1985 with the intention of doing small renos through to complete rebuilds. Unfortunately, many people a...
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No Shortcuts For Property Inspections

There are no shortcuts for property inspections in the professional world. In fact, the backing of an experienced inspector from Jim’s Building Inspections can save you much grief. A professional is on top of his or her game and working for you....
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