Home inspection across Cape Town

What inspectors actually find in Cape Town

Salt-air corrosion

Marine air attacks roof-sheeting fixings, balustrades, gutter brackets, window hardware and reinforcing close to the surface of concrete. The first sign is usually a rust stain on a ceiling or a soffit rather than visible corrosion, because the fixing fails before the finish does.Checked: Roof fixings, balustrade bases, lintels and any exposed steel

Rising damp through absent or bridged DPC

Older stock was built without a damp-proof course, or has one that later paving, a screed, a raised bed or plaster carried over it now bridges. It reads as a tide mark up to about a metre with salt bloom at the top edge.Checked: Skirting-level moisture readings, external ground levels against the wall

Coastal timber and deck decay

Decks, pergolas, window frames and balustrades exposed to salt and moisture fail from the fixings outward. Holiday homes standing empty for months accumulate damage nobody sees until it is structural.Checked: Deck bearers and fixings, window joinery, balustrade fixings

Winter driven rain

Cape winter fronts arrive from the north-west and west. Elevations facing into them take sustained wetting that a sheltered wall never sees, and old face-brick, cracked plaster or perished sealant lets it through.Checked: North-west and west elevations, window perimeters, wall cracking

Areas we cover

• MuizenbergEdwardian seafront stock takes direct salt exposure on masonry never designed for it, and much of it lacks any damp-proof course.
• Fish HoekSloped sites above the bay combine salt exposure with stormwater running against upslope walls.
• Kalk BayBuilt tight against both the mountain and the sea, so these cottages take groundwater from behind and salt from the front.
• Simon's TownGenuinely old, heritage-controlled fabric with extreme marine exposure — a specialist inspection rather than a routine one.
• St JamesNarrow shelf between mountain and sea, so retaining structures and seaward elevations both need attention.
• GlencairnSteep, wind-exposed sites where roof fixings and retaining walls are the recurring findings.
• NoordhoekThatch, wetland ground and wildland fire exposure combine here in a way they do not elsewhere on False Bay.
• KommetjieSevere wind and salt exposure on the open coast, with many properties standing empty for long periods.

What it costs

Indicative market ranges for guidance, not quotes. Full cost breakdown →