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Reading a building survey

Your survey says
things nobody
says out loud.

A Level 3 report will tell you there is inadequate provision to support the structure above the opening. What you are actually looking at is a crack over your window. This page translates the phrases that turn up most often, says what each one usually means for the work, and is honest about which ones need a look before anyone can price them.

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First, the ratings

One, two and three
are not urgency.

Condition ratings describe the surveyor's level of concern, not a timetable and not a cost. A 1 is no repair currently needed. A 2 needs attention but is not serious or urgent. A 3 is either serious, or needs investigating before you commit to the purchase.

The part that surprises most buyers is how many 3s are given because paperwork is missing rather than because something is broken. Electrics, gas and heating are routinely rated 3 on the absence of a current certificate alone, even where the installation is described as working perfectly well. That is a testing job, not a repair job, and it is worth separating the two before you start pricing anything. If your report has produced a long list, the post survey quotes page explains how we work through one.

Structure and openings

The commonest condition rating 3 in London terraces is about what is holding up the brickwork over an opening that somebody widened years ago.

What the report says
What you are looking at
What it usually means
Adequate provision to support the structure above the opening
A crack over a window or a door, often showing inside and outside in the same place.
Usually a missing or undersized lintel. It needs opening up to confirm, then a lintel or steel beam fitted with the masonry propped while it is done.
Chimney breasts removed with the stack left in place
The fireplace has gone downstairs but the chimney is still on the roof.
Whatever carries the remaining stack needs checking. Where it is resting on a timber beam, that is a real structural defect rather than a caveat. See chimney work.
Internal wall removed to create a through room
One long room where the plan suggests there were two.
The question is whether a beam was installed and signed off. Where there is no paperwork, regularisation is possible. See structural openings.
Wall tie corrosion
Horizontal cracks appearing at regular intervals up the wall.
The ties holding the two leaves of the wall together are rusting and expanding. Fixed by wall tie replacement, not by filling the cracks.
Damp and water

Damp is almost never a wall problem on its own. In the reports we see, it is traced back to rainwater goods or to a bridged damp proof course.

What the report says
What you are looking at
What it usually means
Failed or missing damp proof course, rising dampness
A wet band at the bottom of the wall, peeling paint, sometimes a tide mark or white salty deposits.
Needs the cause established before anything is injected or replastered. See damp and timber.
Penetrating dampness
A wet patch on an inside wall that appears after rain and dries out between.
Water is getting through from outside. Usually pointing, render or a rainwater fault rather than anything rising. See repointing.
A section of rainwater goods is missing, resulting in water ingress
Water running down the outside wall every time it rains.
The cheapest item on most reports and the cause of the most expensive one. See gutters and rainwater goods.
Condensation discolouration, inadequate ventilation
Black mould in the corners of rooms and around the windows.
This is a ventilation and heating problem, not a damp proofing one. Treating it as rising damp wastes money.
Hollow sounding plaster, bond weakened
Plaster that comes away with the wallpaper.
Once the bond has gone it does not come back. See replastering.
Brickwork and render

Surveyors describe the material. Owners describe what has fallen off it.

What the report says
What you are looking at
What it usually means
Perished or weathered mortar joints
Sandy gaps between the bricks that you can rake out with a key or a screwdriver.
The wall has stopped shedding water. See repointing, and note that the wrong mortar on old brick does more harm than leaving it.
Spalling brickwork
Brick faces flaking or blowing off, often in patches.
Frost damage, usually downstream of a pointing or rainwater fault. Repointing in cement makes it worse.
Render cracking, hollow when tapped
Cracked render that sounds hollow and may be bulging.
It has lost its key to the wall behind and is holding water against the masonry. See render repair.
Boundary wall leaning out of plumb
A garden wall bowing, or with stepped cracking near a pier.
Usually foundations or missing piers rather than the wall itself. See boundary walls.
Roof, chimney and eaves

Scaffolding is named as the cost driver on roof and chimney work in every report we have read. Price the access, not just the repair.

What the report says
What you are looking at
What it usually means
Slipped or cracked ridge tiles, mortar bedding perished
A ridge tile visibly out of line along the top of the roof.
Rebedding, and worth doing at the same time as anything else needing the same scaffold. See roof repairs.
The roof is not underlined
Daylight visible through the tiles from inside the loft, or drips in heavy rain.
Common in unmodernised London stock. It is a re-roof rather than a repair, so it belongs in a different conversation from a slipped tile.
Chimney flaunching defective, failed lead flashing
Cracked cement around the pot, or a dark wet patch where the roof meets the chimney.
Both let water in at the point where it does most damage. See chimney repairs.
Timber decay to soffits, fascia and bargeboards
Rotten wood under the gutter line.
Almost always caused by the gutter above it. Replacing the timber without fixing the gutter buys a few years at most. See fascias and gutters.
Ceilings, windows and services

Several of these are rated 3 because a certificate is missing, not because anything is wrong.

What the report says
What you are looking at
What it usually means
Textured coating which may contain asbestos
A swirly or patterned ceiling, typically pre-2000.
Nothing is assumed without a sample and a laboratory result. Removal is carried out by accredited delivery partners licensed for the work. See textured coatings and asbestos.
Lath and plaster ceilings can fail without warning
A ceiling bulging or dropping away in one area.
Overboarding or replacement depending on how much key is left. See ceilings and plastering.
Edge seal failure, misting between the panes
A foggy window you cannot clean because the moisture is inside the glass.
The unit is replaced, not the whole window. See misted units.
The installation has been altered in a piecemeal manner
An old fuse box, too few sockets, or round pin outlets.
Needs testing before anyone can say whether it is a rewire or a consumer unit. See rewiring and consumer units.
No current electrical, gas or heating records were available
Nothing visibly wrong, but the section is still rated 3.
This is a paperwork gap rather than a fault, and it appears in almost every report on unmodernised stock. Testing resolves it.
Common questions

Questions buyers
ask us first.

What does a condition rating 3 actually mean?+
It means the surveyor considers the defect serious, or that it needs investigating before you commit to the purchase. It does not tell you what the repair costs, and it does not always mean the work is urgent. Several of the most common 3s are given because a certificate is missing rather than because anything is broken.
The report says further investigation is needed. Is that just the surveyor covering themselves?+
Partly, and legitimately so. A surveyor inspects what is visible and cannot open up floors or walls. Where they cannot see, they are required to say so. The useful question is whether the item is a genuine unknown, such as what sits above a widened opening, or a routine caveat.
Do I need a different contractor for each item on the list?+
Not necessarily. A Level 3 report often produces twenty or more separate recommendations, and RICS guidance itself points buyers towards a main contractor who carries the trades between them, on the grounds that it simplifies coordination. That is the model GMAS works to.
Can you price the work straight from the report?+
Usually yes for the items that are clearly described, and we will say plainly which ones need a look first. Anything involving concealed structure, damp of unknown cause, or asbestos needs inspecting or testing before a number means anything.
My report mentions asbestos. What happens with that?+
Textured coatings, garage roof sheets and old rainwater goods are the usual suspects. Nothing is assumed either way without a sample and a laboratory result. Where removal is needed it is carried out by accredited delivery partners licensed for that work, not by a general builder.
Next step

Send us the
paragraph.

You do not need to send the whole report. The section that worries you is enough to start with, and we will tell you what it describes, whether it needs looking at before it can be priced, and what it sits next to on the list. If it is something we would not take on, we will say so.

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Coverage

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.

Shepherd's BushHammersmithFulhamKensingtonChelseaChiswickWhite CityNotting HillActonEalingPaddingtonEarl's CourtSouthallHounslowBrentfordHarrowWembleyPutneyWandsworthWimbledon and all other London boroughs
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Call GMAS on 07498 597339