Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Independent Roof Inspections are a great idea. 4Feb 28, 2013 3:34 pm David Bishop For anyone building a home or buying a home I would recommend that a full detailed roof inspection be carried out by a fully independent operator. Independent that is from the builder, the roof installer and the homeowner. That way for a couple of hundred dollars you can have any defects in your roof photographed and reported on before it's too late and before you have paid for a non-compliant roo all badly installed. There in mind many roofing problems do not come to light until trees have grown up around the house or until that one in 10 years storm. By then all warranties will have expired leaving you to clean up the mess. Don't think that you will always be covered by your insurance company either because if the fault is found to be a materials defect, installation defect, design fault or maintenance issue, they will not cover it!!! Just came across this thread and agree totally. Apart from roof defects, there are also large numbers of houses built every year with poorly designed and/or non compliant roof drainage. During a recent inquiry report presented to the NSW Parliament in 2011, the Department of Fair Trading instructed a team to randomly inspect display homes for roof drainage compliance. Of the 35 houses inspected, only one was found to be compliant. http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/hidden-report ... 1hx55.html leighton Fully support this suggestion. although a licensed plumber gives a certificate of compliance, there could be problems with a roof. The building inspector etc may not pick them up. Don't rely on plumbers and building inspectors. Also don't rely on your architect's positioning of downpipes on plans, the positions drawn will most likely be 'nominal' and drawn for aesthetics, not function. This is why a lot of display homes don't have downpipes at the front and are consequently not compliant. SLOTTED GUTTERS: If an eaves gutter overflows through the slots when the rain intensity is less than a 1:20 Average Recurrence Interval, THE DRAINAGE IS NOT COMPLIANT. Home owners, for what ever reason, seem to accept slotted gutters overflowing through the slots as being acceptable but an overflow is an overflow. A slotted gutter is required to harvest a smaller roof catchment area than a same sized non slotted gutter due to its smaller carrying capacity but slotted gutters are often fitted as a last minute decision but a roof catchment re-calculation is often not done to determine roof area compliance for the slotted gutter's smaller effective cross sectional area. TWO STOREY HOMES: Spreaders are a cause of a lot of overflows. This happens when an upper roof is drained down a downpipe fitted with a spreader and this concentration of water then drains to a small area of gutter which is nearly always at the end of the gutter. Logic dictates that there should be a downpipe fitted to this section of gutter but the downpipe is often plumbed at the other end of the gutter or even around the corner. The regulations actually do not regulate against this absurdity and I see it all the time. AESTHETICS: Most downpipes are plumbed at the end of the walls and yet the greater roof catchment area normally drains to the mid section of guttering. this is why gutters often overflow halfway between downpipes! Fashion over function! BOX GUTTERS: A lot of home owners have trouble with box gutters. If box gutters are designed to compliance and have an adequate emergency overflow provision, they should not present problems provided they are subjected to regular maintenance to remove any built up sludge that would otherwise promote corrosion. Plastic bags also potentially present a big problem. 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. You have mandatory building inspections and privately engaged building inspections. The difference between the two comes down to inspecting the building so it's safe and… 3 18083 That is a really good attitude Akin to you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. I do enjoy watching that tik tok inspector from Victoria but he does go a little… 12 81896 It is true that a builder can ignore your independent inspection report as it is not part of the contractual arrangement but that is stupid because he cannot avoid fixing… 9 46871 |