Newcastle · Lake Macquarie · the Hunter
Independent editorial, not a booking desk
A journal of houses, pests and purchase
Building Inspector NewcastleA journal of houses, pests and purchase in Newcastle and the Hunter
The houses themselves
Weatherboard cottages, fibro, brick veneer, coastal corrosion and mine subsidence — the building types that define Newcastle and the Hunter.
Photo: Orderinchaos. Adamstown Heights houses. CC BY-SA 3.0. Source on Wikimedia Commons. Licence. Full credits on the image credits page.
Roofs, leadlights, damp and the later kitchen — how to read Federation houses and Californian bungalows on The Hill, in Cooks Hill and in Maitland without mistaking a renovation for the original house.
Priya Nair · 30 August 2024 · 11 min read · Photo: Royal Australian Historical Society, No known copyright restrictions
Weepholes, cavities, wet-area failures and aluminium windows on the Charlestown, Adamstown Heights and Warners Bay estates — the suburban house that looks finished and still leaks in the usual order.
Priya Nair · 22 July 2024 · 10 min read · Photo: Sam Hood / State Library of New South Wales, Public domain
Salt, steel, roofing screws, lintels and balconies on the Newcastle coast — how to tell corrosion from poor maintenance when the southerly is doing half the inspection.
Priya Nair · 19 April 2024 · 11 min read · Photo: Sam Hood / State Library of New South Wales, Public domain
What a walk-through can show, what a Subsidence Advisory NSW document is for, and how to look at cracks in Cessnock, Maitland, Kurri Kurri and older Newcastle without inventing a mine under every hallway.
Priya Nair · 5 March 2024 · 12 min read · Photo: Max Phillips, CC BY 2.0
Asbestos-cement as a material fact, not a panic — how post-war fibro in Stockton, Charlestown and the coalfields towns should be read, and why a building inspection is not an asbestos register.
Priya Nair · 8 February 2024 · 12 min read · Photo: Sardaka, CC BY-SA 3.0
Timber frames, ant caps, paint as weatherproofing and the later addition — how cottages in Cooks Hill, Hamilton, Wickham, Waratah and Carrington actually fail, and what a walk-through can still see.
Priya Nair · 16 January 2024 · 11 min read · Photo: Michael Gardner, Public domain
