Forensic FAQs

What is forensic engineering?

Forensic Engineering, as related to structural engineering and buildings and homes, is an engineering discipline related to determining the root cause of structural failure or deterioration. When a post-construction structural issue arises, a forensic engineer will come out to your property, investigate the damage or defects in question and then prepare a report summarizing their findings. It is the forensic engineer’s job to offer their expert opinion and assign blame for the structural damage.

Why do I need a Forensic Engineer?

Anyone can patch up a crack, but it takes an expert to ensure those cracks will not return. If your house is undergoing footing movement and you are one of the unlucky ones who have tried to patch it up without working out the root cause, chances are your patch and point job has been wasted, seeing the damage return no matter how well it has been patched.

That is where Intrax can help. Using thorough investigation, Intrax will work out the cause of distress to your property and eliminate the cause effectively. Intrax will be with you every step of the way to make sure your building is stable prior to fixing the damage, to minimise the chances of the damage recurring and save you time and money in wasted repairs.

When do I require the services of a forensic engineer?

Any time there is a failure or damage to your home or building due to impact, overloading, poor design, soil settlement or washout or fire, you will want to contact a forensic engineer to begin identifying what factors led to the failure and how to remedy the issues. The forensic engineer will assess the extent of the structural damage and start developing recommendations for action. A forensic engineer’s services may also be needed if you are in a dispute with a builder over poor or unfinished work.

What are the structural irregularities?

There are many structural irregularities that a structural forensic engineer might encounter when inspecting your home, but the most common are cracking walls and foundations. These are indications that there is some sort of ongoing settlement or movement that is causing these cracks. Cracks are not necessarily an indicator of serious structural distress, but they will only continue to propagate if you don’t nip their root cause in the bud. A structural forensic engineer will also be able to identify more serious irregularities like buckling or cracking primary structural members like columns or framing members that could indicate a problem with the structural integrity of the home.

What are signs of structural damage to a house?

Some signs of damage to a house are quite obvious, like a collapsed wall or sagging roof, but others are much harder to see for the untrained eye. Luckily, structural forensic engineers know exactly what to look for and how to remedy most common structural defects. The most common defects in older homes are cracks in the walls or foundation or sloping floors. These are most likely caused by changing subsurface conditions due to drainage, soil settlement or tree roots growing out of control. If modifications have been made to the home without an engineer’s approval, there may be overstressed members that could crack or split without notice.

Is my cracking bad enough to need a Forensic Engineer?

Houses and other buildings, by nature, crack. Some cracking in a house is normal and is expected in the relevant Australian building codes. However, if your cracking looks like some of the examples below, we recommend contacting us for consultation.

How long does a structural engineer’s analysis report take?

There’s no hard and fast rule for how long it should take to get your structural engineer’s report back. It will depend on the size of your house, the overall condition, the scope of work and the engineer’s own capabilities. A standard inspection report for a small home with no major defects could be turned around in a week, while an in-depth report with supporting calculations and drawings for a client looking to make major modifications to their home, it may take longer than a month.

How much does a forensic engineer inspection cost in Australia?

An inspection for a small home should cost less than $1,000, while inspection of a large building with more detail required should exceed $1,000. Most residential inspections include reports, which generally cost between $1,000 to $1,500. For a larger renovation, which will require calculations and detailed drawings, expect to pay over $1,500 for any required structural engineering design services. A general rule of thumb is that the structural engineer’s cost could approach 1-2% of the total cost of construction.  This inspection will often serve as an important first step towards understanding what is causing defects like cracking or settlement.

It’s never great to come home to find your house leaning, your roof sagging or discover cracks in your foundation, but you can rest assured that the experienced team of forensic engineers at Intrax have what it takes to figure out what’s going on and get your house on the mend. Do not hesitate to call on Intrax for all your forensic engineering needs. Our talented engineers will guide you through the investigation and communicate clearly all actions that need to be taken to protect your home.

Contact Intrax Today!

If you believe you require Intrax’s Forensic services, contact Intrax on the details below. Whatever may be causing the distress to your property, the longer it takes to deal with, the more costly and time consuming repairing the damage will be.

P: 1300 INTRAX (1300 468 729)
E: forensicorders@intrax.com.au

Phillip Campbell

Chairman of the Board – Non-Executive Director and member of the risk committee

Phillip Campbell is the Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of the Intrax Consulting Group.

Phillip is an experienced company director with a demonstrated history of successful transformations of public and private organisations by focusing on the intrinsic value of the business, working behind the scenes to improve the effectiveness of management and building strong foundations for growth.

Graduating from Queensland University with a Bachelors’ degree in Electrical Engineering, Phillip has been CEO/MD of a number of public and private companies in the manufacturing and engineering services sectors.

He is a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Phillip has an abiding belief that a stable and safe family home environment is critical for children to achieve a sound education and establish the foundations of a productive life. This is one of the reasons he joined Anchor Inc and is currently its Chairman.

Danny Borzillo

Executive Director

Danny Borzillo is an Executive Director.

Danny has a broad range of experience gained over 30 years of working in the construction and engineering consultancy industries.

Danny is the co-Founder of Intrax Consulting Engineers and was instrumental in the establishment of the Business in 2003. The early success of Intrax was mainly attributed to Danny’s innovation in the volume housing market and positioning Intrax to off its unique end to end service.

Danny Borzillo held the position of Managing Director of Intrax and then joint Managing Director together with Robert Borzillo until March 2011 when Barry Borzillo was appointed.

Prior to establishing and working at Intrax, Danny was involved in several small to mid-sized engineering consultancy businesses. His roles in these companies included Business Owner, Director and Senior Manager, providing consultancy design and construction advice and design services to the building industry.

Danny holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) from Victoria University, is a Chartered Member of the Australian Institute of Engineers and is a Member of several industry technical bodies.

Barry Borzillo

CEO/MD

Barry Borzillo is the CEO/MD of the Intrax Consulting Group

Barry has a broad range of experience in the construction, telecommunications, professional services and government outsourcing industries.

Prior to his appointment in March 2011 as CEO/MD of Intrax, Barry held CEO roles for the ESH group, Tenix Solutions and Ericsson Australia/NZ. He spent nearly four years in the USA in senior roles with Ericsson Inc.

Barry began his career at Ericsson in 1987 as part of the Graduate program. He holds a Masters of Business Administration (Executive) from the Australian Graduate School of Management, a Bachelors’ degree with Distinction in Electrical/Electronic Engineering from Victoria University, is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Engineers and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Barry is passionate about improving educational outcomes in disadvantaged communities which is one of the reasons he joined the Ardoch Youth Foundation Board for ten years, the last five of which he was also the Chairperson.

Andrew Taylor

CFO & Company Secretary

Andrew has more than 30 years of diverse and progressive senior financial experience in professional services, manufacturing and government industries. He is a trusted and proactive business partner, has developed and led high-performance teams, been a member of executive teams and Boards, and driven organisation change with profitability, working capital and structure.

Prior to his appointment in April 2018 at Intrax, Andrew was regional CFO – Australia and NZ region at Aurecon. He spent 17 years at Aurecon leading the finance team, corporatising the business and driving operations across ANZ and Asia.

Andrew is CPA qualified and holds a Bachelor of Business – Accounting.

Andrew’s career highlights include: aligning and integrating 2 major businesses; the initiation, design and implementation of reporting and budgeting software globally; and development and leadership of a new Finance function for a growing company. Andrew enjoys team leadership, developing and mentoring others to reach their potential, and is passionate about maturing, evolving and improving companies and businesses.

Nigel Guo

Executive Director and CTO

Nigel is the Chief Technology Officer of Intrax.

Nigel joined Intrax in 2007 and rapidly rose through ranks with the business. Nigel completed a Bachelor of Structural and Civil engineer from University of Melbourne, and also earned a  Master of Business Administration from Melbourne Business School.

Nigel has had many roles at Intrax, from engineer, to running the residential engineering and quality departments before being promoted into general management roles.

He has played a key role in continuing process and system improvement at Intrax, developing most of the processes and procedures used in the housing departments today that have enabled Intrax to scale with quality, while consistently delivering to clients..

In his spare time Nigel likes sketching, playing bass guitar and soccer.

Robert Borzillo

Non-Executive Director, member of the risk committee

Robert Borzillo is a Non-Executive Director of the Intrax Consulting Group. Robert has over 40 years’ experience working as an engineer in various capacities within the Australian building Industry.

Robert was a co-founder of Intrax Consulting in 2003 with a vision to establish a dynamic end to end values driven engineering consultancy delivering services into the residential housing and building construction industries in Australia

Prior to the establishment of Intrax Consulting Robert was General Manager of Porta Moulding working within the Australian timber industry; in forestry, manufacture and distribution of timber products for the residential building and construction industries.

In his earlier days, Robert also worked as an engineer for Humes Concrete. Involved in the design, manufacture, supply, and installation of precast concrete components for large scale civil and building infrastructure. Robert spent time working in Sydney NSW, and Far North Queensland on many projects. Prior to that Robert spent time with the Country Roads Board in road design and planning of Victorian road infrastructure.

Robert earned a bachelor’s degree from Victoria University, BE Civil is a Certified Practicing Engineer CPE, is on the National Engineers Register. NER, and an accredited practicing engineer in most Australian states. Robert is also a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. GAICD.

Robert’s passion outside of work is travel and snow skiing. He has had the privilege to combine these passions traveling extensively and skiing in Australia, New Zealand, USA, Japan, Italy, and Switzerland.