Survey repairs in London.
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your survey found.
Each of these explains the defect in plain language, what causes it, and what the repair actually involves.
If the wording in your report does not obviously match any of them, the plain English translation of survey terms lists the phrases that come up most often and what each one describes.
What your survey is actually telling you.
A survey report describes the condition of the building. It does not price the repairs, and it is not meant to. That gap, between a surveyor listing defects and somebody telling you what putting them right costs, is the reason this page exists. We are not surveyors. We are the contractor who reads the report, looks at the property and gives you a written price for the work.
Most reports on a house purchase are either a Level 2 survey, often called a HomeBuyer Report, or a Level 3 survey, often called a Building Survey or full structural survey. A Level 2 is a visual inspection of the parts the surveyor can readily see and reach. A Level 3 goes further and is the one usually recommended for older, altered or unusual properties. Both follow the RICS Home Survey Standard, and both give each element of the building a condition rating.
Condition rating 1
No repair is currently needed. The element is in a condition normal for its age. Nothing to do.
Condition rating 2
Defects that need attention but are not serious or urgent. This is where most survey repair work sits. Repointing, slipped tiles, blown plaster, perished sealant, gutters that need clearing or renewing. Individually small, and easy to underestimate when there are twenty of them.
Condition rating 3
Defects that are serious, or need repairing, replacing or investigating urgently. Failed lintels, cracked or hollow render, wall tie failure, active damp, structural movement, unsafe electrics. These are the ones that affect a mortgage offer and the ones worth pricing before you exchange.
Not inspected
The surveyor could not see it. A floor under fitted carpet, a roof void with no hatch, a flat roof with no safe access. Not inspected does not mean sound. If a not inspected element sits next to a rating 3 somewhere else, it is usually worth opening up and looking.
The defects surveyors write up most often.
Survey reports are written in a language of their own. These are the phrases that come up again and again, and what each one describes. There is a longer plain English translation of survey terms if the wording in your report is not here.
The mortar between the bricks has weathered back or washed out. The fix is repointing, cutting the old mortar out to a proper depth and filling with a mix that suits the brick.
The metal ties holding the two leaves of a cavity wall together have corroded and expanded. It shows as regular horizontal cracking, often at every sixth or seventh course.
The render has lost its grip on the wall behind. Tapped, it sounds hollow. Left alone, water gets behind it and the problem spreads.
The support above a window or door has corroded, cracked or was never there. Usually shows as cracking stepping up from the corner of an opening.
Moisture drawn up from the ground where there is no damp proof course, or where the one there is has been bridged by raised ground, a path or added render.
Water getting in through the wall itself, usually from a defect outside such as failed pointing, a blocked gutter or cracked render. Fix the outside first.
Not the same thing. Settlement is historic movement that has stopped. Subsidence is ongoing. A surveyor who is unsure will recommend monitoring or a structural engineer.
The surveyor has seen enough to be concerned and not enough to conclude. It is not a formality. It usually needs someone to open up, test or monitor before anything is priced honestly.
The order to deal with it in.
Rating 3 and further investigation first
Separate the report into three piles. The rating 3 items and anything marked for further investigation come first, because they change what the property is worth and what a lender will do. The rating 2 items come second, and most of them can wait until you have the keys. Everything else is a note for the future.
Defects that share a cause
Then work out which defects share a cause. A report can list damp in the front bedroom, staining on the hall ceiling and perished pointing on the front elevation as three separate items when they are one problem seen from three rooms. Pricing them as three jobs costs more than fixing the cause once. This is the single most common way people overspend after a survey.
Someone who will stand behind the repair
Finally, get the serious items looked at by someone who will be responsible for the repair. A surveyor's job ends with the report. A contractor who has to stand behind the work will tell you whether the recommendation is right.
Getting the repairs priced in writing.
A written price for the work in the report does two things. It tells you what you are actually buying, and it gives you something to put in front of the seller. Sellers rarely move on a survey summary. They do move on an itemised quote from a contractor, because it is a number rather than an opinion.
If a lender has applied a retention, the same quote is what the surveyor needs to see to release it. Retentions are usually lifted on evidence that the specific defect has been dealt with, so the quote and the completion paperwork need to match the wording in the report.
We price from the report and a visit, item by item, in the same order the surveyor listed them, so you can read the two side by side. There is more on how that works on the survey repair quotes page.
Answered plainly.
No. Very few reports describe a property where everything needs doing. The rating 3 items and anything affecting safety or the mortgage matter now. The rest is maintenance you can plan.
Yes, and it is the point at which it is most useful. Send the report over and tell us the address. We will read it and come out.
Yes. Surveyors are cautious by profession and will flag anything they cannot rule out. Some items turn out to be smaller than the wording suggests once someone is actually on the wall. We would rather tell you that than sell you the work.
The work is carried out by a managed team of trades and coordinated by us, so you deal with one contractor rather than chasing five.
Then that comes before a price. Opening up a small area, lifting a board or testing a coating costs far less than quoting blind and finding out later.
Call or send the report and we will arrange a visit. We work across all London boroughs, Monday to Saturday, and Sunday until 3pm.
Often needed
alongside this.
Areas we cover.
We take survey repair work across all 32 London boroughs. Most of our work is in west London, in Shepherd's Bush, Hammersmith, Fulham, Kensington, Chiswick and White City, and in south west London, in Putney, Wandsworth and Wimbledon. We also work in south east London, in Greenwich, Blackheath and Lewisham.
If your property is outside these areas, call us anyway. We travel across London and will tell you honestly if a job is too far to price properly.