What we look for in Footscray
Housing: Victorian and Edwardian weatherboards and brick terraces on stumps, interwar homes, converted warehouses, and a growing cluster of apartment towers near the station and the river.
Footscray mixes Victorian terraces and weatherboard cottages on timber stumps with warehouse conversions and newer apartment towers, so an inspection changes shape from one street to the next. In the older cottages the inspector spends most of the time under the floor, checking stump condition, ground clearance and whether decades of fill and paving have buried the ventilation. Bathrooms in these homes have often been renovated more than once, and a shower that leaks into the wall framing is the single most common moisture problem found. Lots slope toward the Maribyrnong River on the eastern side of the suburb, and the flats near Footscray Park hold water in the clay for months after winter rain. Rear extensions built on slabs behind stumped houses are a weak point, because the join between the old subfloor and the new slab is rarely sealed or inspectable. Keep garden beds and sleepers off external walls, fix any dripping tap or hot water overflow, and ask for the subfloor to be entered, not just viewed from the hatch.
We regularly inspect properties around Footscray Park, Footscray Market, Footscray Station and Maribyrnong River.