Home inspection across Cape Town

What inspectors actually find in Cape Town

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

Termite and borer activity

Sustained warmth and humidity keep timber under constant pressure. Roof timbers, skirtings, built-in joinery and suspended floors are all at risk, and damage is typically well advanced before it becomes visible.Checked: Roof timbers, skirtings, subfloor and any Oregon pine element

Ageing electrical installations

Pre-1990 installations often carry old wiring, no earth leakage protection, and boards extended piecemeal over decades. A certificate of compliance is a legal requirement on transfer and is frequently the largest unbudgeted cost in an older-suburb purchase.Checked: Distribution board, earth leakage, visible wiring, bonding

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

• ObservatoryThis is one of the few parts of South Africa where genuine rising damp is common rather than over-diagnosed, and Oregon pine floors bring borer with it.
• RondeboschMature oak cover keeps walls shaded and slow to dry, so damp that would clear elsewhere persists through the winter.
• NewlandsThe highest rainfall of any Cape Town suburb, and it shows in roof, gutter and subfloor condition more than anywhere else in the city.
• ClaremontA sharp split between older houses with ageing electrical installations and new blocks where common-property waterproofing is the live issue.
• KenilworthLarge original roof areas, frequently re-covered rather than replaced, so old defects are buried under new sheeting.
• WynbergHeritage-grade stock in the village area where original fabric and modern alterations meet badly, particularly at floor level.
• ConstantiaThatch, wine-estate outbuildings and large roof areas on big plots — a materially different inspection from the rest of the Southern Suburbs.
• BergvlietConsistent post-war stock now at the age where original electrical installations and roof coverings both need attention at once.
• TokaiPlantation-edge position brings both borer pressure and a genuine wildland fire consideration that the rest of the Southern Suburbs does not share.
• PlumsteadModest post-war stock where additions have often been built over the original damp-proof course.
• Diep RiverLow-lying sections hold water after winter rain, which shows up as persistent subfloor and skirting-level moisture.
• MowbrayExtensive conversion of period houses into flats has left plumbing and electrical work layered over decades without a coherent record.
• RosebankLong-term rental use means maintenance is often deferred and alterations undocumented, which makes the paper trail as important as the walls.

What it costs

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