Building Inspector Blacktown - Building and Pest Inspection with Highest Rating

How can I book a building inspection in Rouse Hill, Kellyville, Schofields, The Ponds or Marsden Park?
A: Booking with Master Building Inspections is simple and fast. Just call 04 8583 6660 or complete our online form at Master Building Inspection Rouse Hill & Kellyville, and our team will confirm your inspection within a few hours.
We service the entire North West Growth Corridor — including Rouse Hill (2155), Kellyville (2155), Schofields (2762), The Ponds (2769) and Marsden Park (2765) — one of Sydney’s most active property zones with around 2,250 home sales per year (roughly 187 per month).
Our coverage stretches between Melonba High School and the Bernie Mullane Sports Complex, taking in key local landmarks like Glenwood High School (8 min), Hillsong Church – Hills Campus (10 min), Carmel Village Shopping Centre (10 min), and Riverstone Train Station (10 min). We also serve fast-growing new communities such as Elara, Grantham Farm, Tallawong, and The Gables estates.
When booking, simply tell us your suburb, property type, and any contract deadline — we’ll prioritise accordingly. Inspection appointments are usually available within 1–2 business days, but during peak auction seasons (spring and autumn), slots fill quickly, so early booking is recommended

Yes, if the diary has room. A lot of our Seven Hills, Kings Langley and Baulkham Hills clients work full time and cannot take a weekday off just to stand in an empty house for two hours.

Saturday spots go first. If you want one, ask by Thursday. Spring and autumn are the busiest because that is when most auctions run.

Here is the thing about weekends though. If the agent will only open the place mid-week, we work with that instead. We do not want you losing a property because you waited for a Saturday.

Same-day report either way. You book Saturday morning, you have the report Saturday night, and you can think it over on Sunday before Monday’s deadline.

Every suburb around here was built at a different time, by different people, for different reasons. So the problems are different too. Across Australia, 85% to 97% of properties have at least one defect, and 42% have a water leak somewhere. Suburb by suburb, this is what actually turns up.

Blacktown 2148. A real mix. Post-war fibro and brick veneer on 600 to 750 square metre blocks, plus newer townhouses near the station. In the older stock we find cracked brickwork from soil movement, roof leaks, and bonded asbestos in eaves and under wet areas. In the townhouses it is usually shower and balcony waterproofing.

Seven Hills 2147. Housing Commission estate, finished by the mid-1950s. That makes a lot of these homes 70 years old. Original wiring, original roof tiles, original bathrooms. We find sagging roof timbers, rusted valley flashings, and drainage that has been added over the years without much thought.

Lalor Park 2147. The Housing Commission started here in 1958, and at the time it was the biggest housing estate in New South Wales. Mostly single-storey fibro and brick cottages. Big issues here are asbestos sheeting, subfloor moisture, and granny flats or extensions added without council approval.

Kings Langley 2147. Housing scheme started in the 1970s, and it only became a suburb in 1987. Most homes are 40 to 50 year old brick veneer. That is the age where roof tiles go brittle, valley flashings rust through, and the original shower waterproofing has already failed.

Marayong 2148. Rural until the 1960s, then Housing Commission estates went in south of the railway line. There is industrial land north of the line. In the homes we see footing movement, old fibro eaves, and stormwater running the wrong way because the yard has been landscaped over the years.

Doonside 2767. Farmland that got subdivided from the early 1950s. Now about 13,600 people live here. The housing is a wide spread of ages, so we do not assume anything. Termite damage in older timber frames and failed wet area waterproofing are the two we find most.

Woodcroft 2767. This one is different. It was the State Brickworks from 1969 to 1988, and before that the State Timberworks. Houses only started going up in 1992. So the ground under some of these homes is worked ground. We pay close attention to slab cracking, site drainage, and floors that are out of level.

Prospect 2148. Sits near Prospect Hill, which is basalt and dolerite country rather than plain shale. Mixed old and newer housing next to a lot of industry. We look hard at footing movement, retaining walls, and stormwater, because the ground here does not behave the same as it does in central Blacktown.

Girraween 2145. Established residential in the Cumberland area, handy to Pendle Hill and Toongabbie. Homes here are mostly post-war brick and fibro with plenty of extensions bolted on since. Unapproved additions, roof leaks at the join between old and new sections, and termites in older timber are the usual finds.

Huntingwood 2148. Being honest with you: Huntingwood is an industrial suburb. It is zoned for warehouses and had a resident population of 3 at the 2021 Census. There is basically no housing here. Most people who search Huntingwood are actually buying in Blacktown or Prospect next door, and that is where we inspect.

Quakers Hill 2763. About 27,900 people, and the suburb splits in two. West of the railway is older, 1960s and 1970s homes on standard blocks. East of the railway was built from the 1980s with lots of townhouses. Old side: roofing and rewiring. New side: shared walls, balconies and waterproofing.

Mount Druitt 2770. Huge Housing Commission estate, around 8,000 homes for 32,000 people, built from the 1960s. A lot of it used Radburn planning, where houses face backwards onto shared green space with the garage to the street. That layout causes real drainage headaches, and we check where the water goes very carefully.

Rooty Hill 2770. Old village core with heritage buildings, ringed by post-war and Housing Commission housing. So you can have a 1900s cottage on one street and a 1970s brick veneer on the next. Rising damp, old footings, and roof structures that have been patched more than once.

Baulkham Hills 2153. Bigger, more expensive homes. About 13,155 dwellings and a median sale price near $1.9 million. Lots of two-storey houses with balconies, complex rooflines and multiple wet areas. More surface area means more places to leak. Upper-floor balcony waterproofing is our number one find here.

Pemulwuy 2145. Built from 2004 on a former Boral quarry and CSIRO land. So the homes are only about 20 years old, but that is exactly when original shower and laundry waterproofing reaches the end of its life. Slabs and drainage get a hard look too, given the ground history.

A building and pest inspection runs $499 to $729 plus GST across the cluster. Where you land depends on how big the house is, whether it is single or double storey, and how easy the roof and subfloor are to get into.

A three-bedroom single-storey home in Doonside or Lalor Park sits at the lower end. A big double-storey in Baulkham Hills with two bathrooms and a balcony sits at the top.

Worth it? Do the maths. 27% of properties with defects need more than $10,000 of repairs. 13% to 15% need more than $20,000. Major defects average $25,000 to $60,000. Industry data puts the return on an inspection at 723% to 1,103%.

You spend about $600 to avoid an average $6,000 problem, and occasionally a $45,000 one. That is the whole argument.

Price includes both rounds of the deep inspection, the photo report, and a free report talk worth $110.

Yes, and not just as a formality. 89% of inspection reports turn up a problem the buyer had no idea about. Skip it and you carry roughly a 70% chance of hitting a defect you could have found first. Why it matters where you are buying:

Blacktown 2148. Biggest council area in the state by population, nearly 134,000 dwellings. Huge range of housing ages and types on the market at once. You cannot judge a Blacktown house by the street it is on, and a 20-minute open home tells you almost nothing.

Seven Hills 2147. Seventy year old homes. Everything in them has a service life, and most of it ran out a while ago. An inspection is the difference between buying an old house you understand and buying an old house that surprises you in year one.

Lalor Park 2147. Prices here have climbed hard as buyers get pushed out of Kings Langley and Seven Hills. Plenty of stock is renovated. A renovation can hide as much as it fixes, and new paint over a moving crack is the oldest trick there is.

Kings Langley 2147. Solid family suburb with good blocks, and it is in demand. Demand means competition, and competition makes people rush. 60% of Australians who skip an inspection say market speed was the reason. Do not be one of them on a suburb this tightly held.

Marayong 2148. Around 7,800 people and a lot of ex-Housing Commission stock that has been privately renovated over the decades. Work done by owners is not always work done by licensed trades. So we look at whether the additions were ever approved, and whether they were done by someone who knew what they were doing.

Doonside 2767. Affordable entry point, which means a lot of first home buyers. First home buyers have the least money spare for a surprise repair bill. The average house defect costs $5,839 to fix. That hurts a lot more when you have just emptied your savings on a deposit.

Woodcroft 2767. Homes here are 30-odd years old and built on former brickworks land. That combination deserves a proper look. Slab and drainage issues are cheap to identify and expensive to ignore.

Prospect 2148. Homes here sit close to heavy industry and major roads. You get the usual defect list plus the things that come with that setting: retaining walls, boundary drainage, roof condition.

Girraween 2145. Lots of extended and renovated homes here. Every extension is a join, and joins leak. So we go over the roof and wall junctions between the old and the new parts, because that is where the water gets in.

Huntingwood 2148. If someone is selling you a “home” in Huntingwood, check the zoning first. It is industrial land. This is one of the few times the right answer is to look at Blacktown or Prospect instead.

Quakers Hill 2763. Two different suburbs in one postcode. The report you need for a 1970s house west of the line is not the report you need for a 1990s townhouse east of it. Get the right one and know which side you are buying on.

Mount Druitt 2770. Cheapest entry into the Blacktown area, so it draws investors and first home buyers. Ex-commission homes can be great value. They can also have 60 years of patch-ups. An inspection tells you which one you are looking at.

Rooty Hill 2770. Because of the age range here, two houses on the same street can be 70 years apart. There is no “typical Rooty Hill house,” so there is no safe assumption to make.

Baulkham Hills 2153. At a median around $1.9 million, a defect you miss is a defect you pay for at Hills prices. Research by Consumer Affairs Victoria found 60% of buyers walked away from a problem property once the report told them the truth.

Pemulwuy 2145. People assume newer means safer. It does not. Studies show 70% of newly built Australian homes carry undetected defects at handover, and Pemulwuy homes are now old enough for the first round of waterproofing failures.

Yes, in every single suburb. CSIRO research says one in three Australian homes will be attacked by termites, 80% of mainland houses sit within 25 metres of a nest, and 130,000 to 180,000 homes are damaged every year. Termite repairs average $45,000 and your home insurance will not pay for it.

Blacktown 2148. Established gardens, mature trees and 600 to 750 square metre blocks. Plenty of food and plenty of cover. Older timber-framed homes here are the highest risk in the suburb.

Seven Hills 2147. Timber-framed 1950s homes with 70 years of garden growth around them. Any chemical barrier installed at build time is long dead. Most of these homes have had no real termite protection for decades.

Lalor Park 2147. Fibro and timber cottages with a lot of added decks, pergolas and garden beds. Timber in ground contact is the single most common thing that invites termites in, and it is everywhere here.

Kings Langley 2147. Homes at the 40 to 50 year mark with big established gardens. Soil barriers last about 8 to 10 years before they need redoing. Ask the seller when it was last done. Most will not know.

Marayong 2148. Industrial land north of the railway and housing south of it. Disturbed ground and older timber frames sit close together. We use Termatrac radar through the wall linings rather than guessing.

Doonside 2767. Ageing stock, big yards, timber retaining walls all over the place. Around 32% of Australian homes have some termite presence. In a suburb this age, we treat every job as a live risk until the radar says otherwise.

Woodcroft 2767. Newer homes, but the land was cleared and reworked from a brickworks site. Clearing pushes existing colonies somewhere else, and that somewhere is usually the closest timber frame.

Prospect 2148. Bushland and reserve edges nearby, which raises pressure. Subfloor, frame and fence lines all get looked at, not just the inside of the house.

Girraween 2145. Lots of older timber framing hidden behind newer renovations. That is the worst combination, because the damage is out of sight. Radar and moisture readings find it without cutting anything open.

Huntingwood 2148. Warehouses have timber too, in roof structures and fit-outs. But most termite work we do around Huntingwood is on the homes next door in Blacktown and Prospect.

Quakers Hill 2763. West side homes are old enough that the original barrier is gone. East side townhouses share walls, and a colony in one unit is a problem for the whole row. Both sides need checking.

Mount Druitt 2770. Thousands of homes built at once in the 1960s, and thousands of barriers that expired around the same time. Add Radburn-style shared green space with mulch and mature trees right up against the houses.

Rooty Hill 2770. Some of the oldest housing in the cluster, including timber cottages over a century old. Old timber with a long history of moisture is exactly what a colony is looking for.

Baulkham Hills 2153. Bigger homes, bigger gardens, more landscaping. Raised garden beds against walls and irrigation running near the slab edge are the two things we flag most often here.

Pemulwuy 2145. New homes should have a compliant termite management system. Should. Whether it was installed properly around the slab penetrations is another question. That detail gets rushed more often than people think, so we look.

Yes. Your certifier signs off on compliance, not on workmanship. Around 70% of new Australian homes carry undetected defects at handover when nobody independent looks. In inspected new builds, 87% had at least one defect, 23% had major defects, 41% had waterproofing problems and 34% had electrical non-compliance.

We do all five stages: pre-slab, frame, lock-up, fixing, and the final PCI inspection before handover.

Blacktown 2148. Knockdown-rebuilds and dual occupancy builds are common. Slab stage matters most here because of the reactive clay. Reinforcement, hold-down bolts and the termite system all get looked at before the concrete goes in.

Seven Hills 2147. Mostly knockdown-rebuild and granny flats on existing blocks. Watch the connection between old and new work, and the drainage, because the yard was never designed for two dwellings.

Lalor Park 2147. Granny flats are everywhere here, allowed as of right on lots above 450 square metres under the NSW planning rules. A granny flat is a real build and deserves real stage inspections, especially the slab and the wet area.

Kings Langley 2147. Limited new land, so it is renovation and second-storey additions. Frame stage is critical when you add a floor, because the existing footings were never designed for the extra load.

Marayong 2148. Infill and duplex builds on old commission blocks. Fire and sound separation between the two halves is the check most people never think to ask for.

Doonside 2767. Mix of new duplexes and townhouse projects. Lock-up stage is the one to book, because that is when flashings and balcony detailing get done and then covered forever.

Woodcroft 2767. Fully built out now, so it is extensions and rebuilds. On worked ground, we always want eyes on the slab before the pour.

Prospect 2148. New industrial and some residential infill. Site drainage is the recurring issue, and it is much cheaper to fix before the landscaping goes in.

Girraween 2145. Extensions and second storeys on older homes. Is the new structure tied properly into the old one? That junction is where movement and leaks turn up first, so it gets a good look.

Huntingwood 2148. Active warehouse and logistics construction. Different building type, same principle: independent eyes at each stage beat a single sign-off at the end.

Quakers Hill 2763. Still has townhouse and duplex projects going in on the east side. Waterproofing at fixing stage is the one that costs the most to fix later, once the tiles are on.

Mount Druitt 2770. Big rebuild and subdivision activity as old commission homes get replaced. New slab on old fill needs checking properly at base stage.

Rooty Hill 2770. Subdivision and dual occupancy work. Setbacks, drainage and separation walls are the items we pick up most often.

Baulkham Hills 2153. Custom homes and large renovations at high build cost. When you are spending this much, five inspections at $499 to $729 each is cheap insurance on the whole contract.

Pemulwuy 2145. The estate is largely finished, but there are still builds and plenty of homes now hitting their first big maintenance stage. If you are building here, book the PCI before you sign handover and release final payment.

We cover the Blacktown local government area and the suburbs that sit right on its edges.

Core patch: Blacktown 2148, Seven Hills 2147, Lalor Park 2147, Kings Langley 2147, Marayong 2148, Doonside 2767, Woodcroft 2767, Prospect 2148, Girraween 2145 and Huntingwood 2148.

Also covered: Quakers Hill 2763, Mount Druitt 2770, Rooty Hill 2770, Baulkham Hills 2153 and Pemulwuy 2145.

Beyond that we regularly work in Kings Park, Arndell Park, Glendenning, Dean Park, Plumpton, Oakhurst, Acacia Gardens, Parklea, Stanhope Gardens, Minchinbury, Whalan, Hebersham, Emerton and Shalvey.

Blacktown City has close to 134,000 dwellings and around 397,000 residents, which makes it the largest council area in New South Wales by population. We have done 10,560 inspections over 22 years, so we know these streets.

If your suburb is not on the list, ring us anyway. If it is in the western basin, we probably cover it.

Yes. New homes, near-new homes, townhouses, duplexes and granny flats.

New does not mean problem-free. A study of new multi-owner buildings found 85% had at least one defect, with an average of 14 defects each. Waterproofing and cladding lead the list.

For a brand-new build we do stage inspections and a final PCI inspection, and we give you a defect list written against the standard it breaches, so your builder can action it. Under most contracts the builder gets 10 working days to fix what is on that list.

For a townhouse or duplex we check the things detached houses do not have: the wall between you and your neighbour, sound and fire separation, balcony waterproofing, and shared drainage.

For a near-new resale, say a Pemulwuy or Woodcroft home now 20 or 30 years old, we do a full pre purchase building inspection. That is the age where the first round of waterproofing and roof problems shows up.

Two things drive most of what goes wrong around here. The ground moves, and a lot of homes were built before 1990 when asbestos sheeting was normal.

For soil movement we use a professional laser level to measure how far floors are out, then read the crack pattern in the brickwork to work out whether the movement is still happening or finished years ago. That difference changes everything about what a repair costs.

For asbestos we do not test or remove it. We identify where sheeting is likely, flag it in the report, and tell you to get a licensed assessor before you touch it. How that plays out depends on where you are:

Blacktown 2148. Wianamatta shale under most of the grid, usually classed H1 to H2 under AS 2870. Add pre-1990 eaves sheeting. Both get checked on every job.

Seven Hills 2147. 1950s stock, so asbestos is the leading concern, especially in eaves, wet area sheeting and old fences. Laser level on the floors as well, because 70 years of movement adds up.

Lalor Park 2147. Fibro cottages. Assume asbestos until proven otherwise. We also read subfloor moisture, because damp underneath is what starts the movement above.

Kings Langley 2147. 1970s and 80s brick veneer on reactive clay. Step cracking above windows and doors is the tell. We measure it rather than guess at it.

Marayong 2148. Commission-era homes with a lot of later cladding work. Sometimes the newer skin is hiding original sheeting underneath. We also want the drainage falling away from the slab edge, not toward it.

Doonside 2767. Mixed ages, so we test each house on its own. Moisture meter through the wet areas, laser on the floors, radar on the frame.

Woodcroft 2767. Former brickworks land. Worked ground can settle unevenly, so the laser level does the heavy lifting here, plus a close look at site drainage.

Prospect 2148. Basalt and dolerite country near Prospect Hill rather than plain shale. Different ground, different movement pattern. Retaining walls and stormwater get extra attention.

Girraween 2145. Extended homes, mostly. The junction between the original house and the added part is the spot. Two sections, two rates of movement, and they pull apart.

Huntingwood 2148. Industrial slabs and hardstand. Level and drainage are still the two things that matter, just at a bigger scale.

Quakers Hill 2763. West side is the old half, so that gets the asbestos and roofing check. Newer east side gets the waterproofing and party wall check. Same tools, different priorities.

Mount Druitt 2770. Radburn layouts push stormwater across shared land toward the backs of houses. We follow the water first, then check the slab and footings for what that water has already done.

Rooty Hill 2770. Some very old footings here, including homes predating modern slab construction. Rising damp readings and subfloor ventilation are the first checks.

Baulkham Hills 2153. Larger two-storey homes. Thermal imaging over balconies and upstairs wet areas, because that is where water gets into the floor structure below.

Pemulwuy 2145. These homes went up from 2004 on former quarry land, so asbestos is not your problem. Slab performance and drainage are. Laser level and moisture readings do most of the work here.

Usually 1 to 2 business days, and sometimes same day if you are really stuck.

Blacktown moves fast because it is the biggest council area in the state by population and there is always stock on the market. Spring and autumn are the worst for availability.

We know why people skip inspections. 60% say the market moved too fast. 45% were scared of losing the property to someone else. 25% were trying to save money. Every one of those reasons costs more than it saves, because 15% of Australian buyers skip inspections and lose an estimated $339.8 million a year in defects they never saw coming.

So call us the moment your offer is accepted, or even before you bid. Tell us your deadline. We plan the week around contract dates, not around what is convenient for us.

Report lands the same day we inspect. No waiting three days for a PDF.

Blacktown is not one market. It is fifteen little ones, and they do not behave the same way. The honest read on each:

Blacktown 2148. Around 51,000 people in the suburb itself, roughly 65% separate houses, 19% semis and townhouses, 16% units. Rail on the T1 Western and T5 Cumberland lines. Best value is in the older grid, but that is also where the oldest problems are.

Seven Hills 2147. Good transport, older homes, steady demand. You are buying a 1950s house whatever the renovation looks like. Budget for the roof and the bathroom within the first five years.

Lalor Park 2147. The one that is gentrifying. You get Kings Langley land size for less money. There are still pockets of public housing, and honestly, the street matters more here than in any other suburb on this list.

Kings Langley 2147. Family suburb, tightly held, sits next to the Hills District. Prices reflect that. Homes are 40 to 50 years old, so factor in the big-ticket items even on a tidy-looking house.

Marayong 2148. Affordable and close to two rail lines. Check whether any extension or granny flat was approved. That question has killed more settlements around here than any structural defect.

Doonside 2767. About 13,600 people, and a lot of them are first home buyers. Good value. The catch is that the housing is old enough that you really need to know what you are signing for.

Woodcroft 2767. Small suburb, about 2,200 dwellings, blocks around 400 to 600 square metres. Built from 1992, so it is one of the newer options in the area. Ask about the ground history.

Prospect 2148. Close to industry and major roads, which keeps prices sensible. Look at noise, drainage and boundary structures as carefully as you look at the house.

Girraween 2145. Quiet, established, in the Cumberland council area rather than Blacktown. Handy to Pendle Hill and Toongabbie stations. Watch for extensions done over the years.

Huntingwood 2148. Industrial, and the last Census counted three residents. If you are buying here, it is a warehouse.

Quakers Hill 2763. Nearly 27,900 people. Decide which side of the railway you want before you start looking, because the two halves are completely different products at different prices.

Mount Druitt 2770. The cheapest way into the area. Rental demand is strong, and there is a big service precinct with the TAFE and the hospital. Ex-commission homes range from immaculate to rough, and you cannot tell which from the footpath.

Rooty Hill 2770. Old village character, heritage buildings, and a very wide age range in the housing. Two houses on the same street can be 70 years apart in construction.

Baulkham Hills 2153. Hills Shire, not Blacktown council. About 37,400 people across 13,155 dwellings, median sale price near $1.9 million. Bigger homes mean bigger repair bills. Getting it wrong here costs Hills money.

Pemulwuy 2145. Planned estate on former quarry and CSIRO land, started 2004, around 5,500 residents. Modern homes, good layouts, and now old enough that the first waterproofing failures are showing up.

Because a crack means different things in different suburbs.

An inspector who works the whole of Sydney sees a stepped crack in brickwork and writes down “movement.” Someone who has worked Blacktown for 22 years knows the Wianamatta shale under most of the grid is reactive clay, usually rated H1 to H2 under AS 2870, and knows what that movement normally does over 40 years.

Same with the rest of it. Knowing that Woodcroft was a brickworks until 1988. Knowing Mount Druitt used Radburn planning, so the stormwater runs across shared land behind the houses. Knowing Pemulwuy sits on a former quarry. None of that is in a national checklist.

Being local also means we get there. Most bookings go out within 1 to 2 business days, and you talk to the person who actually walked the property, not a call centre.

Four main ones.

A building inspection covers the structure and condition of the property, reported to AS 4349.1. A building and pest inspection adds the timber pest report under AS 4349.3, done in the same visit by the same inspector. A pre purchase building inspection is the one most buyers want before they exchange. A new home inspection covers construction stages, from pre-slab through frame, lock-up and fixing to the final PCI inspection.

We also inspect townhouses, duplexes, units, granny flats and dual occupancy builds, which need a few extra checks around shared walls, fire separation and drainage.

About 85% of Australian buyers now get some form of inspection, up from 76% three years earlier. That works out to roughly 448,394 inspections a year nationally. The 15% who skip it lose an estimated $339.8 million a year between them.

People assume newer means safer. The data says otherwise.

The 2023 NSW Strata Defects Survey looked at 642 strata buildings and found 53% had serious defects in the common property. That was up from 39% in the 2021 survey. If you are buying a townhouse or unit near Blacktown station, in Quakers Hill east of the railway, or anywhere with a strata plan, that number applies to you.

In new residential buildings the defect mix is well documented. Cladding is over 40% of reported defects, fire protection 13.3%, waterproofing 11.5%, roof and rainwater disposal 8.6%, and structural elements 7.3%.

Newer Blacktown stock has its own timing problem too. Woodcroft homes date from 1992 and Pemulwuy from 2004, which puts both at the age where original shower and laundry membranes give out. That failure is invisible until a moisture meter finds it.

Have a look at who else ranks for Blacktown searches. A fair few are national brands running the same suburb page over and over with the name swapped out, and some are head-officed in another state entirely.

The page reads fine. The problem is that nothing on it is about Blacktown.

We have done 10,560 inspections over 22 years, most of them in this part of Western Sydney. That means we know what the 1958 Lalor Park cottages were built from, what fails in Kings Langley brick veneer at the 45 year mark, and which streets in Mount Druitt were laid out back to front.

You also get one inspector. The same person books the job, walks the property, writes the report and picks up the phone when you have a question about it. No handover, no ticket number, no head office.

The tools stay the same. What we look hardest at changes.

Post-war fibro cottages (Lalor Park, Doonside, parts of Rooty Hill). Assume bonded asbestos in the sheeting, eaves and wet area linings until proven otherwise. Subfloor moisture and ventilation come next, because damp underneath starts the movement above. Timber frames this old are the highest termite risk in the cluster.

1960s to 1980s brick veneer (Kings Langley, Seven Hills, Marayong, west Quakers Hill). Roof tiles, valley flashings and ridge capping are at end of life. Laser level on the floors, then read the crack pattern in the brickwork to work out whether the footings are still moving or settled years ago.

Ex-Housing Commission homes (Mount Druitt, Lalor Park, Marayong, Doonside). Thousands built at once to the same plan, then renovated 60 different ways. We check whether additions and granny flats were approved, and whether the electrical work was done by a licensed trade.

Townhouses, duplexes and units (Blacktown station area, east Quakers Hill, Girraween). Different checklist. The wall between you and your neighbour, fire and acoustic separation, balcony waterproofing, shared stormwater, and the condition of common property you will be paying levies toward.

Granny flats and dual occupancy (right across the cluster, allowed as of right on lots above 450 square metres under the NSW planning rules). Approval paperwork first. Then the secondary slab, which is often less engineered than the main house, plus separate service connections and drainage for two dwellings on a yard designed for one.

Newer estate homes (Woodcroft, Pemulwuy, Blacktown infill). Waterproofing membranes at the 20 to 30 year mark, slab performance, and site drainage where landscaping has settled and turned the fall back toward the house.