A pre-slab inspection checks your new home’s base before the concrete is poured, when problems are cheapest to fix. We inspect the site set-out, drainage, reinforcement and vapour barrier against the engineer’s design and the plans, and send you a photographed report.
- Rated 5.0 from 581 Google reviews by home buyers and owners across Melbourne and Geelong.
- Led by Patrick Dunne, a registered builder with an Advanced Diploma in Building and Surveying.
- Around 12,000 inspections completed, including about 1,100 in the last 12 months.
Building a new home? Book a stage inspection online or call (03) 8797 2639.
When should I book a pre-slab inspection?
As soon as your builder gives you the pour date. Book once the steel is in place and before the pour.
What we check at the slab stage
- Site set-out and slab position against the plans
- Site drainage and fall away from the slab
- Vapour barrier placement and overlap
- Reinforcement size, placement, laps and chairs
- Edge beams, internal beams and piers where shown on the engineer’s drawings
- Termite management system where installed at this stage
- Service penetrations and plumbing set-out
Under Victoria’s Building Regulations 2018, your builder must notify the building surveyor at four mandatory stages: before a footing is placed, before nominated reinforced concrete is poured, at completion of the frame, and at completion of the building work. An independent inspection is carried out for you, the owner, and records defects and incomplete work in a report you can give your builder.
Why does the slab stage matter?
The slab carries the whole house. Once the concrete is poured, the reinforcement, vapour barrier and set-out underneath it cannot be seen or easily corrected, so a problem found before the pour costs far less to fix than one found later.
What happens if the inspection finds a problem?
Each item is listed in the report with a photograph and its location, so you can raise it with your builder or site supervisor before the pour. Your builder is responsible for fixing defects; our job is to find and record them independently.
The next stage
After the slab comes the frame stage inspection. See all stages on our new home stage inspections page. We inspect new builds in Tarneit, Truganina, Wyndham Vale and Melton.
