FINAL PRACTICAL COMPLETION

When your home reaches practical completion, a detailed Pre-Handover Inspection is crucial. Often referred to as PCI (Practical Completion Inspection) or NHP (New Home Presentation), this inspection ensures that all aspects of your new home are built to the highest standards and ready for your final approval before moving in.

 

While your builder may consider the home “practically complete,” this inspection provides the opportunity to
identify and address any defects, ensuring that your home is fully aligned with the National Construction Code (NCC), Australian Standards, and the manufacturer’s guidelines.

We meticulously inspect all areas of your home to confirm that quality and construction standards have been met. During the inspection, we review over every inch of the property, broken down into key internal, external, and roof cavity areas:

 

External Checks

• Brickwork: No overhangs, installed level, plumb, straightness, and proper placement of articulation joints, DPC flashings, and weepholes.

• External feature cladding: Level, plumb, straightness, and proper placement of articulation joints & flashings.

• Subfloor ventilation: Installed as per endorsed plans.

• Exhaust fan ventilation: Through to external air.

• Clearances: Between windows and brick sills, ensuring no obstructions or misalignments.

• Guttering & Fascia: Straightness, level, and correct installation, including checking for paint damage on colorbond materials.

• Downpipes: Installed as per plan, level, connected to hook ups and without scratches or dents to the colorbond material.

• Roofline & Tiles: Installation quality, alignment and confirming final roof service is complete prior to handover for tiledm roofs and that for metal roof sheets that all damages are replaced for new prior to completion.

• Driveways, Pathways & Landscaping: Ensuring proper finishes and drainage systems installed as per engineered drainage plans.

• Engineering Design: Verifying the as-built structure aligns with approved plans and specifications.

• Garage boundary wall and parapets: Installed to heights on endorsed plans.

• Retaining walls (if required): Installed as per engineering and waterproofed.

• Site backfilling: Ensuring minimum 50mm of fall 1m from the building edge.

• Agi drains: Connected to silt pits.

• Gaps: External gaps larger than 3mm sealed.

• Bushfire provisions: Installed as per plans and AS 3959 (Bushfire construction).

 

Internal Checks

• Doors & Windows: Functionality, clearance, and proper fixing to framework and for glazed items.

• Plasterwork: No marks, scratches, or visible joints, ensuring seamless finishes on walls and ceilings.

• Kitchen & Bathroom Installations: Cupboards, benchtops, tiling, and grouting are checked for level, alignment, and quality.

• Plumbing & Fixtures: Correct installation of baths, taps, pipes, and waste systems. Free of water leaks.

• Paintwork & Finishes: Thorough review of painted surfaces for full coverage, no overpainting, and smooth finishes.

• Architrave & Skirting: Ensuring all edges are straight and aligned.

• Electrical: Smoke alarms installed as per plan and linked. Ventilation installed to toilet, ensuite, bathroom and laundry. Lighting and fans correspond to electrical layout.

• Lift off hinges: Installed to all wet area doors when toilet is 1200mm or less from the entry door.

• Water stops: Visible in all wet areas.

• Internal caulking: Complete throughout.

• Splashbacks: Mirrored and tiled splashbacks installed.

• Glazing: Grade A safety glass where required.

• Room heights: As per minimum requirements.

• Facilities installed: Kitchen sink, a bath, a shower, laundry wash tub, toilet and wash basin.

• Weather seals and door rubbers: Installed to achieve energy rating.

 

Staircases

• Treads: Non-slip finish to internal and external treads

• Stair riser and goings are consistent: 190mm riser, 240mm tread, 125mm gap between open treads. No more than 5mm deviation.

• Handrail: Continuous down one side of the staircase. Minimum height 1m.

• Balustrade: Max opening 125mm.

• Riser head height: Ensuring maximum head height above a riser complies with Australian standards.

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Windows

• Safety decals: Opaque bands installed where required for any window that can be mistaken as a doorway that’s 500mm or less from ground level.

• Restrictors: Window restrictors on first floor windows.

• Obscure glazing: Obscure glass installed as per endorsed plans.

 

Roof Cavity Checks

• Insulation: Ensuring proper fitment, correct depth, and no contact with roof tiles or sheets, preventing heat loss and moisture build-up.

• Roof Sarking: Verifying correct installation, if applicable.

• Whirly birds/flues/vents: Installed as per endorsed plans.

• Solar panels: Installed as per endorsed plans.

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Balconies

• Drainage: Drainage waste and overflow installed with tiling complete and caulked.​

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This final inspection is your last line of defence before handover. We thoroughly assess your home to ensure it meets quality standards—checking everything from waterproofing to insulation. Any issues are identified and documented, giving you the leverage to have them addressed before you move in.