Let’s say you’re planning to buy a second-hand car. Unless you’re a motor enthusiast, you’d be wise to enlist the help of a car mechanic.

They’ll be able to give you an objective overview of your planned purchase so that you know what you’re really getting into. More than likely, you’ll also want to avoid future costly breakdowns by getting your car serviced regularly.

The same principles apply to buildings. Skimping on Brisbane building inspections is a false economy. Why? Read on the find out.

What a Building Inspection Can Tell You

When you get one of our Brisbane building reports hot off the press, you will, in effect, have a snapshot of your property taken in a moment of time.

Think of it as an MRI scan but for bricks and mortar. It will give you insight into any issues, warts and all, and what you need to do to put them right.

Here are some typical structural and maintenance problems that our building inspections flag up:

• Damaged or worn-out support for stairs, balconies and landings
• Superficial or more serious cracks in walls
• Rusting structural steel that’s a danger to the building
• Rotten timber framing and termite damage
• The beginnings of dry rot and loose tiles

Why Building Inspections Are Cost Effective

There’s a recurring theme in the evidence gleaned from the building reports that we’ve collated over the years. It’s a simple message: the sooner you can spot potential maintenance and structural issues in a building, the less expensive they are to put right.

Let’s take the example of some external steel railings that surround a balcony. It’s almost inevitable that there will be traces of rust at some point. Keeping on top of these kinds of issues by catching and fixing them early costs very little.

However, leave them for just a few years and you might find that the recommendation of a building inspection is to replace all the railings.

Safety First!

There’s a very real safety issue too. If you have tenants who use the balcony regularly, you could be putting their lives at risk by not paying sufficient care and attention. Your negligence could be catastrophic and land you with a whole pile of legal costs too.

A straightforward building inspection will mean you can sleep at night. It gives you the opportunity to take action and put right any problems that could be far more costly and dangerous if left unresolved.

How Often You Should Have a Building Inspection

There is no hard and fast rule because there can be so many dependencies. These can include:

• The age of the building
• How often building inspections have taken place in the past
• Whether there was a satisfactory resolution to previous issues
• Whether recent problems need to be signed off as resolved in the future

As a general rule of thumb, in commercial real estate, building inspections should happen once every 12 months on average. As part of the service at QBM, our team will advise you of when you should schedule a further inspection, taking into account all the current issues there may be with your property.

Protecting Your Investment

Brisbane building inspections carried out by QBM are your safety net against costly issues further down the line. One of our goals is to nip potential issues in the bud so that they don’t compromise safety or develop into something far more serious.

Find out about the range of inspections we can carry out here. Get in touch now for a quote. We know from experience that one of our Brisbane building reports could in effect unlock valuable funds for the future.