A BUILDING inspector who exposes dodgy work on new build homes has revealed one job that never gets done properly.
Zeher Khalil, 40, has been threatened several times for exposing the mistakes and shortcuts made by some builders on new houses.
The brave Aussie builder turned inspector has unearthed jobs where tradesmen failed to comply with minimum standards and shares the shoddy work online.
He even uses thermal imaging and law-enforcement grade UV lights to detect leak stains.
The dad-of-four and Site Inspectors'chief surveyor told Daily Mail Australia that one builder got so enraged about an inspection he was told "if you review another one of my properties, you'll end up in my boot".
"I told him 'I didn't know it was your property, I'm just doing a job for a client'," Zeher said.
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The 40-year-old has become so worried about threats that he's registered his car to his work office and not his house to stop belligerent tradies turning up and abusing his family.
He believes some 95 percent of houses he's checked contain non-compliant work and 80 percent have so many faults that buyers rather back out of deals than fix them.
But there's one task in particular he said builders are especially poor at: Waterproofing.
"The waterproofing industry in Australia is not properly regulated," he explained.
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"Your next door neighbour can say you're compliant on a job.
"From what I've seen every waterproofing job is non-compliant which leads to water leaks everywhere."
He said tiling standards are also sub-par.
He puts the shocking number of bad jobs down to "a combination of laziness and lack of education".
"The average tradie hasn’t studied the regulations properly that he works to," he said.
"Australian standards are not free either – you have to buy the documentation.
"But in general, I think people are just trying to get away with doing less."
Zeher -who worked as a registered builder for 10 years – started posting videos in frustration over the standard of work tradesmen on his jobs were delivering.
"A builder is flat out managing his own company and cash flow, communicating with clients, booking materials, coordinating trades," he explained.
"He can't oversee all the work done, he's not sitting with tiler or the waterproofer saying 'let me check if there's enough glue behind those tiles' or whether the waterproof membrane is thick enough.
"I'm not trying to be a hero, I just know the process, I know both sides: how trades operate and the homeowners' view too, and I saw the missing link."
Zeher once posted about a flock of birds he found nesting behind one crack at a home in Melbourne.
The ramifications of a bad property inspection report can be huge for a builder.
It could force them into bankruptcy as buyers either pull out of their deal or builders are forced to fix the mistakes – costing them thousands.
Zeher said: "The problem really only gets discovered when things go badly wrong, when the owner takes the builder to court and the documentation shows the work done was non-compliant, especially on things like waterproofing and painting."
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Surprisingly, Zeher said he's sometimes thanked by builders for critiquing their projects.
He is now planning a Patreon account where he can be paid for delivering customised content – such as explanations of the tools he uses or the documentation he follows.
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