Getting building advice is easy, just ask. There is plenty of free advice available from friends, family, friend of a friend or on a forum or a government department but the chances of it being the right advice  are slim, or worse still, the chances of being the best advice are negligible. Even if you pay for advice there is no guarantee it’s going to deliver the best outcome, so it pays to be careful. It pays to know who to ask. The following is a true example of a family ( who were willing to pay good fee for a good advice) wasting their money twice before coming to me.

Firstly they purchased a home and got a pre purchase inspection from a major company employing architects. The dwelling did have some cracking but it was described as minor and cosmetic.

About two years later the home started some serious cracking and they commissioned a report from a structural engineer. This concluded that the cracking is the result of prolonged drought but did not have any real answers or solutions. The dwelling continued to get worse.

When I saw the home last week, the corner of the lounge concrete slab had subsided 40mm and the dwelling will require underpinning. I was able to explain a number of issues that had contributed to the failure and what will be required to eliminate them.

I did that in a manner that my client’s understood and that gave them comfort and confidence that the fix will be permanent.

Whilst architects and engineers are highly skilled professionals they are likely to be missing vital elements required to diagnose the problem and to prescribe them most practical and lasting solution. What are the missing elements?

1 Qualifications in building surveying and

2 Extensive experience in property inspection

This is a general statement and there certainly are architects and engineers that have all of the above but you have to find them, or you can come to me.