Critical stage inspections are inspections the Principal Certifier must carry out at particular points during building work. They are not optional, and they are not a quality check for the owner's benefit — they are the mechanism by which the building is confirmed to match what was approved.
The schedule depends on what is being built and what your approval requires. For a typical residential project it means the footings before the pour, the reinforcement in place, the frame once it is up, wet area waterproofing before tiling, stormwater drainage, the pool barrier where there is one, and the final inspection.
Each inspection exists because the thing being inspected is about to become invisible. Once concrete is poured you cannot see the footing. Once the wall is lined you cannot see the frame. Once the tiles are down you cannot see the waterproofing.
That is why an inspection missed is not an inspection you can catch up on later. Putting it right means opening the work back up, which costs more than the day it would have cost to wait.
You do — or your builder does. The work reaches the stage, somebody books the inspection, and we confirm the time. That is deliberate: the builder knows when the frame is up and we do not.
Inspections are booked in the client portal, and either the owner or the builder can book them. After each one the report and the site photographs go straight back into the project file, where everybody on the job can read them.
Tell us straight away. There are ways to deal with it — usually involving opening up the work, or a certificate from a qualified person who can attest to what is now hidden — and all of them are easier the sooner they are raised.
What does not work is carrying on and hoping. An Occupation Certificate is issued at the end on the strength of the inspections that were carried out, and a gap in that record is a gap the certificate cannot be issued over.
Send us the property address and whatever plans exist and we will tell you where you stand — the pathway, what is still needed, and what it will cost. Or call (02) 8772 4022 and we will talk it through.
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