Condition Surveys

A condition survey is a detailed inspection of a building, in order to establish its maintenance and condition of repair. Each building element is described in detail along with its current condition.

it not only provides information for maintenance work that is required immediately, but other areas which will also require maintenance to their fabric over time.

The survey also gives an indication of when future repairs, maintenance, decoration and renewal of each part of the building should be anticipated. Normally, a condition survey is used as the basis to complete a planned maintenance programme.

A planned maintenance programme is a schedule of the maintenance required for each building element, prioritised, with a budgeted cost and timing, year-by-year. Typically the period will be between 5 and 25 years.

Envelope

The external fabric of a building can be extremely varied in design and specification, although all buildings tend to have roofs, walls, windows, doors and grounds. We specialise in building inspections and can offer additional drone surveys through our trusted external consultants where required, in order to inspect and report on high-level roofing areas particularly. We also use our extensive range of traditional surveying equipment such as borescopes, cavity cameras, professional quality builders' spirit levels and 8.0m-high pole cameras.

Roofing

We believe that a healthy roof is the starting point for a healthy building. Roofs which are not maintained properly can cause tremendous knock-on damage to everything that they enclose, as well as becoming dangerously dilapidated themselves. We therefore spend a great deal of time on roofs, fully inspecting and reporting on their condition. Many areas of roofing may not have been inspected since the day they were laid, and other areas may be very inaccessible generally. In these circumstances, we use drones and high-level pole cameras to gain as much access as is possible, and very often our clients are shocked as to the true condition of this important part of their building.

Hidden Detailing

The image on the left shows a 'Heath Robinson' arrangement to the collection and disposal of roof rainwater. It was completely non-visible from any ordinary viewing angle.

There are a number of issues present, including;

Potential damage to roof membrane by paving slab.
Build-up of organic material causing blockages.
Insufficient 'intended design capacity' to deal with water.
Incorrect coping stone overhang to parapet wall.
Inadequate support for rainwater pipe leg.

High Level Issues

Very often a building may appear to be in a good and robust condition. However, it only takes a single, apparently small defect to cause major issues to its overall fabric condition. The image on the left represented the single defect noted to all the tile-hanging of the external wall on this building. During our roof void inspection, not only could we see daylight coming through as soon as we entered the roof void, but we also noted extensive water damage locally to roof timbers. Fortunately, the damage had not taken hold properly and only minor repairs were required. Had this defect not been identified by us, then we strongly suspect that wet and dry rot issues would have been experienced, and the building's owner would have been committed to considerable expense in order to rectify the problem.

We are able to undertake condition surveys on most building types, including residential, commercial, educational and institutional buildings, and as commercially licenced and insured drone operators with our own fleet of drones, we can inspect and report on any high level inaccessible or fragile area.

Please contact us for more information whether you are a commercial landlord, property manager, letting agent, or any other person with an interest in property - we would be happy to have an informal chat with you in the first instance.

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