Bardia: Structural Master Construction ordered to stop work at 80 Eather Ave, 16 Lamia St

A Fair Trading inspector had their work cut out after finding a slew of subpar construction problems during an inspection of two properties in a fledgling southwest Sydney suburb.

Bardia is a growing suburb. Picture: Picture: Jonathan Ng

It’s tools down for two houses at Bardia where the state’s building watchdog has issued stop-work orders in the burgeoning suburb after 27 examples of inferior building work were identified.

The NSW Building Commission’s acting director of building compliance Donald van Keimpema has ordered Wollongong-based developer Structural Master Construction to repair works at Lamia St and Eather Ave.

At 16 Lamia St, the order was effective from March after 13 concerns were raised during an inspection a month earlier.

They included a failure to properly apply the concrete material to support a wall frame at the entry, the discovery of cavities under the ground slab and identifying signs of surface rust on the bottom plate of the metal wall frames.

Excess cement was also applied to the edge of the garage ground slab to support the external wall frame while the roofing blanket had been incorrectly lapped with too much sagging between each roof batten.

Developers Structural Master Construction must comply with orders to repair the inferior construction work. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“Based on those observations … I am of the opinion the building work is, or is likely to be, carried out in a manner that could result in significant harm or loss to the public or to occupiers or potential occupiers of the building,’’ Mr van Keimpema said.

Just 200m away, at 80 Eather Ave, 14 examples of poor construction work were documented during an inspection on the same day.

The long list included a failure to use a method that would prevent the foundation material from collapsing from under the ground slab.

Clay was also identified between the concrete piers and ground slab.

The bottom part of the outside metal wall framing also had “insufficient bearing on the ground slab” because the slab edge was damaged.

The screws of the upper floor sheet flooring in some areas had missed the floor joists. The external wall frames to the garage had not been fixed to the ground slab.

Like the Lamia St inspection, Mr van Keimpema concluded the work could be dangerous to the public or potential occupiers, or could present significant damage to property.