Dry Wall Home Inspection

Drywalling is a building technique whereby timber or metal framing is clad with a lightweight board.    The framing and the electrical and plumbing services, together with insulation, are contained beneath the cladding.

Because of its lightweight nature, and ease of installation, drywalling is commonly used in South Africa for office partitioning and increasingly for the addition of another story on a home, where the foundations might otherwise need to be strengthened to handle the weight of a conventional brick and mortar extension..

A thorough drywall inspection should be a pre-cladding inspection – carried out prior to the cladding.  Post-cladding inspections will only reveal the neatness of the installation of the cladding board, together with the taping of the fixing screwheads and the final decoration.

The only way to ensure that a drywall structure has been built according to its specifications is by performing a pre-cladding inspection.

 “Pre-cladding” refers to a phase during the homebuilding process just after the installation of the doors, windows, flooring, wall and roof components, plumbing and electrical rough-in – and right before the drywall is hung. Drywall, once installed, will  make identifying or fixing any problems both difficult and expensive, once the new home is completely finished.

A pre-drywall inspection can be performed after the insulation is installed, which is convenient because it allows the home inspector to determine whether the insulation was properly installed. However, the insulation may conceal some components.  

If you require any other services or information from HouseCheck then please go to our home inspections services page