A steel column that was never installed
And a frame summary that said so plainly.
In short: A steel column recorded not installed on an Austral frame whose summary reads defective.
What was recorded
An Austral frame inspection logged it at high severity: not installed, under steel columns and posts. The inspection summary for the same job reads: overall conditions, defective.
Why write about it
Because it is the finding people assume cannot happen. A steel column is on the drawing, it is expensive, and it holds something up. It was still absent on the day we attended.
How an omission this size survives
Because the trades that follow work to a program, not to a drawing. Nobody after the steel fixer is checking whether the steel arrived.
The word defective
We use it rarely. Two other Austral frames from the same period are summarised as mid level or acceptable. A summary that reads defective is a deliberate statement and a tribunal would read it as one.
What happens next
The item goes to the builder with the drawing reference. On something this size the response is usually immediate and the correction is not disputed.
Written by the Owner Inspections team from inspections carried out in Catherine Field. Licensed building practitioners, NSW Fair Trading licence 366177C.
