Building Health Check

The Building Health Check is a free self-assessment for NSW strata committees and owners: ten taps about the signs of building defects you can see, from water stains and drummy render to concrete cracking, scored against Building Commission NSW defect survey data, ending in a traffic-light verdict and a printable summary you can table at your next AGM. It is general guidance, not advice: the check cannot see your building and is not an engineering or building inspection, so for anything structural, or wherever safety is in doubt, seek a professional inspection promptly. Your answers are scored in your browser and are never sent to our server. Built by Projex Pro, licensed Sydney remedial builders, NSW contractor licence 378139C. Planning the repairs? Our free DBP Check shows in 60 seconds whether the work needs registered designs and practitioners under the NSW DBP scheme.

Why check your building’s health

53% of NSW apartment buildings registered between 2016 and 2022 reported at least one serious defect, and waterproofing is the number one failure, ahead of fire safety and structure. Most buildings find out the expensive way: small symptoms get painted over until the repair window narrows. The numbers come from the Building Commission NSW Strata Defects Surveys of 2021, 2023 and 2025.

The check above turns that data into a three minute self-assessment. You tap through the symptoms you can see, it scores your building against the NSW pattern, and you get a traffic-light verdict with a one page summary you can print and table at your next AGM. No sign-up, and your answers are never sent to our server.

Building Health Check FAQs

Common questions about spotting serious defects early in NSW strata buildings, what usually fails first, and what a committee should do next.

Walk the building and look for the classic symptoms: water stains or damp patches, mould that returns after cleaning, bubbling paint or white salty streaks, cracked or drummy render and tiles, concrete cracking with rust stains, and balcony or planter leaks that show up after rain. Serious defects can also exist without visible symptoms, which is why a professional baseline inspection is worth having even when everything looks fine.

Waterproofing failures are the clear number one. The 2025 Building Commission NSW survey found waterproofing defects in 44% of all buildings surveyed, ahead of fire safety systems at 28%, building enclosures at 23% and structural defects at 18%. Among schemes registered between 2016 and 2022, 53% reported at least one serious common property defect. The surveys cover Class 2 apartment buildings of four or more storeys only.

Document what you can see, then get a professional inspection to establish cause and extent, not just the symptom. Table the findings at your committee meeting or AGM so the owners corporation can approve investigation or repairs while the fix is still small. The check above prints a one page summary designed exactly for that conversation.

Yes. There is no sign-up and no form, and your answers are scored entirely in your browser and are never sent to our server. If you print your summary, your answers travel in the link that opens the print view, and that link is written into this page’s address, so it shows in your address bar and is saved in your browser history. We count usage events in our site analytics, including the traffic-light colour, but never your answers. The result is scored against published NSW strata defects survey data.

That is the band the 2023 NSW survey measured: 53% reported at least one serious defect, and the 2025 survey found the same rate for schemes registered to June 2024. The newest buildings are improving, but the 2016 to 2022 group carries the legacy, and its waterproofing is now reaching the age where weaknesses show.

The facade, balconies and external waterproofing, including drummy render and concrete condition, moisture mapping of suspect areas, and the cause of any leak rather than just its stain. A good inspection ends in a prioritised, plain English report your committee can act on, with make-safe advice on anything that cannot wait.

This page is general guidance, not advice, and the statistics are from the Building Commission NSW Strata Defects Surveys (2021, 2023 and 2025) for Class 2 residential apartment buildings. Keep exploring: the Defect Map shows where NSW strata buildings actually fail on an interactive section drawing, The DBP Check shows in 60 seconds whether your repair needs registered practitioners, the Capital Works Fund Check tests your fund against the Act’s 10-year plan rules, and the Council Approval Check shows which approval pathway a renovation needs.