A Victorian property investor has stumbled upon a terrifying secret lurking within the walls of a seemingly modern home, prompting him to raise urgent questions about the structural integrity of steel-framed properties and the adequacy of current building inspections across Australia.
Charles Corby, a 31-year-old investor from Geelong, purchased a 14-year-old investment property earlier this year for $430,000, planning a straightforward renovation and flip.
But what he uncovered behind the plasterboard has left him deeply concerned for other homeowners.
“When we pulled off the plasterboard, we found that almost the entire internal steel frame was rusted,” Mr Corby revealed.
“The bottom sections particularly were badly corroded, including some load-bearing walls, perimeter walls and key structural points. Some parts had rusted right through.”
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Charles Corby was shocked to find rusted internal frames inside his latest investment property. Image supplied.
The damage was so severe that entire sections of the frame, built by a local volume builder, were beyond repair, necessitating a complete replacement by a registered builder – a massive and unexpected expense.
A hidden defect in a young home
Mr Corby found the age of the property particularly alarming.
Built in 2011, the home is just 14 years old.
“Coated steel in Australia is supposed to last up to 50 years,” he stated.
“So finding this level of damage in a 14-year-old home was a major red flag.”
He highlighted how easily this critical flaw could remain hidden.
“The even scarier part is that you’d never know unless you opened the walls,” Mr Corby explained.
“We only found it by pure chance when some of the plasterboard was removed during the renovation.”
With the home now four years past its 10-year structural warranty, Mr Corby is footing the bill for the extensive repairs himself, estimated at around $50,000.
The find was even more surprising considering the home is only 14 years old. Source: Charles Corby
He warns that for the average Aussie family, such an unexpected cost could be financially devastating.
“It only cost me $50,000 because the walls were already open for renovation,” he noted.
“But to replace it if you’re not renovating could cost upward of $100,000.”
Replacing an internal frame is a monumental task.
It involves stripping the home bare – plasterboard, skirting, architraves, doors, electrical, plumbing, fixtures, and furniture must all be removed before the walls can be rebuilt and the interior reinstated.
“An owner-occupier could be out of their home for months, on top of the cost,” Mr Corby pointed out.
Unanswered questions and a call for change
The exact cause of the extensive corrosion remains a mystery to Mr Corby and his builders. “There’s no evident cause for the erosion that we can identify, and my builders are also stumped,” Mr Corby said.
“We’re just shocked that the erosion has occurred at all, given the steel is designed to be coated and marketed with a 50-year warranty.”
He confirmed the rust originated from the ground up, but stressed that the property is a standard suburban home, not a coastal one, with no unusual circumstances that would typically accelerate such decay.
Mr Corby is an experienced property investor.
Mr Corby’s experience has led him to critically examine the current standards of pre-purchase building inspections.
“About 10 to 15 per cent of homes in Australia are built with steel frames, which makes me wonder how many might have hidden corrosion that’s never been checked?” he pondered.
He is now advocating for mandatory checks for steel frame integrity to be included in standard building and pest reports.
Current building and pest inspections typically focus on visible aesthetic and structural elements, with walls rarely opened due to the reasonable assumption that steel framing should last for decades.
“If we have strict rules around asbestos, we should have similar protections for this. The risk to people’s safety can be just as serious,” Mr Corby said.
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