​In my opinion the current housing market has gone crazy with purchasers bidding without wanting inspections due to the fear of missing out, combined with the trend of the Vendor wanting to accept no conditions on the sale of their property, so they are excluding both the building inspections and subject to finance clauses from the sale contract conditions. This gives the purchaser auction-like conditions once they have made an offer that gets presented, if they want the house. The vendor then knows all the forwarded offers, but unlike an auction, the purchasers do not know where the price is at when making their offer. The risk is all on the buyer and my opinion is this should only be considered as acceptable risk if the property is that new that it is still covered by the builders warranty and you know what it costs to buy land and build. Due diligence is required when buying in today's market, as prices may fall just as it has in other states in Australia in the last few months. 
Below are some photos of the damage that my client got to see of this 33 year old house, but I am sure the purchaser probably did not know about it at the time of the fast paced auction. During the Building and Pest inspection that I did for my client, mud tracks were followed through the roof and a termite nest was located in the wall. Notable flooring damage, hidden by a coffee table and rug on the floor. My client attended the auction with the knowledge that work was required when buying the house and knew when to stop bidding.

​When you are at an open inspection, you are rushing around and would be lucky to spend 20 mins looking at the whole house. Often multiple open inspections are done, with other potential buyers, all possibly making an early offer.
Here is a heads up on the warning signs, that you should take note of.
In older homes with timber floors, often a carpet is positioned over a floor area. This can be hiding termite damage, or simply a staging prop. If possible, walk over the carpeted area and listen for creaking noises and feel for joist movement. If no one is around peel back the carpet and have a look, however this will be frowned on by the agent. Look for termite floor traps, suggesting prior inspections and for drill holes in the perimeter pathways, that show prior treatment.
Exterior timber windows that were freshly painted for the sale of the property, can also be hiding existing wood rot, look for the texture difference and feel the difference between the putty and the timber. The putty will over time just fall out, leaving the damaged windows.
Wood rot in timber fascia’s is often difficult to see without a ladder. Look for recently replaced guttering and metal capping covering the mitred fascia corners.
Rising damp can be seen by small paint blisters, these can appear after the first few rainy days and often located near damaged downpipes.
Rising damp or waterproofing issues in bathrooms can be seen with a torch, looking down the wall surface for small paint blisters.
A building inspector will have a Tramex moisture meter to check for all the above issues and many other inspection tools, so it's best to use an inspector after you have made an offer or prior to the auction day.
Happy house hunting.

Firstly, I am not an engineer, however the concepts involved are not that difficult to grasp. Underpinning is simply one way to stabilise the movement of house wall but is not the answer in all cases. Digging out and introducing a new stabilised footing under you house slab can and will rectify a lot of the issues, but is this expensive repair technique really the only answer?  The other alternative is using an expensive resin injection system to push up the sinking slab to rectify the cracking walls.
All concrete slabs and footings are engineered to be serviceable for the life of the house, however the engineers do request that the entire perimeter of the house be surrounded by pathways that direct water away from the slab edge. When looking at houses for sale, quite often this has been neglected.
Understanding that cracks in ceilings or walls are due to slab heave, that occurs when the soil moisture content under the house has been changed and is no longer uniform under the slab. Reactive clay soils will swell when damp and shrink when dry. When the soil around the outside of the house becomes wet the clay soils absorb moisture and expand pushing up on the external edges of the slab or strip footing. The soil in the middle of the slab remains constant, so the expansion of the slab and cracking of the walls begin. These expansive forces are powerful enough to lift a house and easily crack the concrete strip footings of older homes.
If for example you do spend many thousands of dollars with either resin injection or underpinning, but do not rectify what caused the issues, you may soon find out that any warranty provided by the companies involved is probably void.
In lots of cases simply doing what was requested by the original engineer, making sure that water is directed away from the house and that the house has a decent pathway surrounding the slab to prevent heave is all that may be required.
I would suggest simply doing this and observing the cracking is a great start, then if the ground is not more stable after a year or so, then consider spending your money with an established underpinning or resin injecting business. You may only require patience, some quality crack filler and a slap of paint to keep it looking good.

When you're at an open inspection looking at a house, you get to see all the nicely decorated rooms and freshly painted walls. But what is through that personal access hatch that you need to know about?

​This space located between the ceilings that you can see and under the roofing surface that you can see from the road, is full of expensive repairs that let's face it, do not get repaired before a sale as they are not seen. This area is often only rectified, if the house has been on the market so long that it has had multiple prior inspections and it becomes apparent to the seller that it will not sell unless, at an auction where no inspection was arranged by the purchaser. The Vendor may at this point decide that they desperately want to sell and will spend some money to patch it up for sale, or spend so much rectifying the issue, they end up keeping the property after doing the renovations.
The issues can be simple insulation installation issues that may cause ceiling fires or even ceiling collapse. Older houses often have halogen downlights, that require 200mm clearance from the recessed luminaire, 200mm clearance from a timber structural member and 50mm clearance from the transformer. This is often not done and a fire can occur. 
Other insulation issues are missing insulation batts, that will result in insufficient thermal areas, but this is a minor issue compared to a collapsed ceiling. Where no insulation is present in a ceiling, the unpainted side of the exposed gyprock absorbs moisture, gains weight and sags. The sagging gyprock then pulls through the nails and glue that holds the ceilings up. From inside the room all you may notice is a small ring crack around the nail or screw head. Each room that requires the ceilings to be replaced however can cost up to $3,000 to remove, replace and repaint. The costs are so high that an electrician will need to be involved, the insulation will probably require replacement and the clean up required afterwards. 
Damaged timberwork can be the result of prior tradesmen simply removing structural timbers or altering truss sections to make their job easier. Other notable areas of damage is truss plate delamination, mould damaged timbers, chemical delignification damage, wood rot or termite damaged timbers. All of these items are an expensive repair and can require engineering recommendations and certification. The structural members of a roof are designed by an engineer and can not just be modified or repaired on site by anyone. Roof sheeting can rust and lead flashings can crack allowing for moisture ingress to the ceiling space, also roof tiling can crack or terracotta roof tiles can fret.

​Have you wondered why your concrete paving looks damaged?
Concrete paving consists of cement, sand, fine rock aggregate and water that has been press formed in a mold. The concrete cures when the water in it has evaporated. Being a medium strength concrete product and depending on your paver choice, it can be as low as a 10mpa strength product, meaning that the paving has the ability to transfer water. Even in the construction of bridges, using 50mpa strength concrete will still require additives to be waterproof, so the weaker paving blocks are never going to be a water-resistant product, basically no concrete is without additives. The constant presence of water will weaken the bond of the surface materials. Once that surface has weakened and begins to wear off, it then allows the concrete to have further rapid failure.
Moisture can transfer from the ground upwards if there was a plumbing or drainage problem. Especially if the rubble base and the coarse river sand bed was not adequately prepared prior to paving being laid, as water can be held by the clay subsoil and then wick up through the paver.
Alternatively simply due to a lack of adequate drainage or fall in the paving surface, can cause water to pool and then be absorbed into the paver. 
In the photos attached you can see the concrete paved areas have lost all its durability. The paving surface is crumbling and the paving requires full replacement. Inspection of the base is recommended as the paving may have been installed directly to the soil. No drainage was noted in the area and guttering overflowing issues have also attributed to this issue.
The house slab edge was not adequately protected from the moisture issues and the moisture has transferred into the slab edge causing concrete spalling. The render under the sliding doors has also been damaged due to this moisture transfer.
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Sometimes locating termite activity can be easy, however it is often very difficult to adequately assess, without the correct inspection tools.
Termite mud tracking can be easy to notice if the house has adequately exposed concrete around the perimeter, such as the suggested 75mm by the Building Code of Australia.
Garden beds against the house slab can often hide the mud tracks, as can the garden vegetation itself.
The issue to understand is termites are attracted to damp moist timber and inadequate drainage away from the house can increase the chances of termites. Garden and lawn beds are watered for the plants health, however this too is simply attracting termites to the house.
Another interesting point is that soil types also change the amount of fall required for pathways around the house, with clay type soils requiring far greater fall away from the house, than sandy type soils. Unfortunately most DIY pathways are inadequately sloped away from the house. This is a great concern when concrete pathways are installed, often with no or little consideration for drainage allowances and can be a great expense to replace.
Termites however are happy to live in most soil types.
In most building and pest reports, this area of concern will be highlighted as a significant issue that needs rectification.
When researching a property prior to purchase, consider an additional expense such as removing paving and relaying if often not thought of. But then again neither is additional costs of replacing structural walls or flooring members. 
I inspected a 9 year old home this week and found enough issues for the purchaser to pull out of the sale. This buyer had bothered with a building and pest inspection, you should seriously think about having one done too.
Below are some images of the mud tracking into the house and the Termatrac radar unit locating movement within the wall above the mud tracks. The Tramex moisture meter is at maximum damp readings here and all along the inside wall of the house when inspected. ​

Chemical Delignification can occur to timbers within the ceiling space and the damage can be minor or quite the opposite if the timber becomes defibrated.
It can appear to look like hairy timber and often occurs under old terracotta roof tile battens but can be seen on other structural timber within the roof space. The photo below shows a timber purlin under a metal roof in Port Adelaide.
The lignin, which is the natural glue that holds wood fibres together, can break down due to moisture ingress, or by the chemical environment due to the air quality of the area over time, or just from proximity to the ocean.
When the fibres begin to detach the timber begins to look hairy or defibrated.
Often the hairy timber is just surface damaged and not a structural issue, I have also however in some roof areas, been able to crush the timber with my hand and pull off chunks of timber.
Chemical delignification is not a termite or pest issue, so may not be noted in a termite report, but a good building inspector should note it on a building report, if they fully inspect the ceiling space.
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​Most hot water systems with a glass lined steel tank will generally only last between 8 to 10 years once installed, the reason for the failure is normally due to corrosion of the tank walls, because the sacrificial anode has been depleted. The anodes are steel core rods surrounded with either magnesium, aluminium or zinc and are suspended inside at the top of hot water tanks. Due to a process called electrolysis, the sacrificial anodes are designed to corrode before the steel tank. The anodes should be changed over every 3 to 5 years and the steel tank life may be extended to around 20+ years, but hardly anyone knows that this can be done. Anodes only cost between $50 to $90 to buy and DIY install or a plumber may charge around $150 to supply and install them. It is worth noting that some hot water systems have two anodes, not one. Before attempting to replace the anodes, read the documentation relevant to your heater for instructions and be aware you may void your warranty unless you are a licensed plumber.
Most stainless steel tanks still require a sacrificial anode, even Solahart units have them and recommend servicing them regularly to prolong the useful life of the hot water system.
Finding out the age of the hot water system is often difficult as most companies have a different serial number code system, although some manufacturers have it listed on the pull out panel where you can relight the burner on a gas unit. Often external electric units have a label that has faded or peeled off, due to sunlight or just the weathering of the unit.
Rinnai hot water systems often have a 10 figure serial number, the first two digits are the month, the next two are the year, Rheem can be shown the same way, but this may differ on some models. Thermann show the year first then the month of manufacture. So often it is difficult to work out the date of manufacture. Older houses rarely have the original hot water service and if they do, they probably require replacing.
Instantaneous units have no tanks and should last 20 years minimum. Most houses that have replaced the original tank systems, install an instantaneous system as they are cheaper to run, purchase and do not run out of hot water.
The external wall mounted instantaneous systems also often have no label to show the date of manufacture, as they have peeled off or faded.
So its best to allow for a hot water replacement in your plans, if you're buying an older established home and a hot water tank is still in use.