Ventilation Openings and Weeps Record Checklist

Walk the whole way round the building in one direction, taking each elevation in turn, rather than looking at whichever wall you happen to pass.

A methodical circuit catches the elevation nobody looks at, which is reliably the one where something gets built up against the wall.

Photograph each elevation as a whole first, then photograph each opening close up, so every close view can be placed on an elevation.

A close photograph of an opening is useless without a wider one showing where on the building it was taken.

Mark every opening you find on a single sketch or photograph of each elevation, numbering them so notes and photographs can be matched.

The marked elevation is what makes this a usable document rather than a folder of pictures, and it is the thing you hand to a trade.

Put the date on the record and repeat the walk periodically, keeping the earlier versions rather than replacing them.

Comparing two dated records is what shows whether something has been covered since, which is the whole purpose of keeping it.

Record what you can see without poking, opening, clearing or covering anything, however obstructed or unnecessary something may look to you.

Clearing an opening is as much an alteration as blocking one, and what it does is not established by what it looks like.

Do not open, clear, block or alter any opening. What each one does is a professional question about the specific building.

Note anywhere you could not see properly — behind a shed, under a deck, above a conservatory — and record that as an unchecked position.

The places you cannot see are where the openings most likely to be covered already are, and naming them is the honest record.

Look along the base of every wall, including behind planting and under any existing deck or step, and photograph each opening you find.

Openings low down are hidden by exactly the things that are most likely to be extended or replaced next.

For each opening, photograph the ground immediately in front of it, showing how the surface outside relates to the opening.

The relationship between the ground and the opening is the fact that changes when a surface is raised, so it is worth capturing now.

Note any opening that already appears to be obstructed by soil, planting, paving or an earlier alteration, and photograph it as you found it.

Something already covered is a question for a professional, and the photograph of it as found is the useful part of the observation.

Look for openings on what is now an internal wall or behind a later addition, and note their positions even though they are enclosed.

An enclosed opening is part of the building's history, and the fact that one exists is worth recording for whoever asks later.

Record what anybody has told you about what these openings are for, with the name and the date, rather than recording it as fact.

Accounts of what a vent does circulate freely, and attribution keeps them distinguishable from anything a professional has said.

Write down a question about any opening whose purpose nobody can explain, and keep it as a question for a professional.

An unexplained opening is much more likely to be closed by somebody than one that has been explained to the owner.

Look in the joints immediately above windows, doors and other openings for small gaps, and photograph each run you find.

These are the openings most often read as missing mortar and filled during repointing by somebody acting carefully.

Look along the wall immediately above where any roof or lean-to meets it, and photograph any openings in that run.

Openings at an abutment are the visible end of an arrangement inside the wall, and their position matters more than their appearance.

Look where the wall changes — at a change of material, at a floor line, above a bay — and photograph any openings you find there.

These positions are where a wall's internal arrangement is interrupted, which is why openings appear at them.

Where a wall is clad, look for gaps at the bottom and top of the cladding and photograph them, noting whether anything covers them.

Gaps in cladding look like a tolerance rather than a designed feature, which is why they are closed with trim or sealant.

Where a wall is rendered, photograph the bottom edge of the render and any bead or gap at that line.

The bottom edge of a render is a designed line, and it is frequently altered when paving or a new surface is laid up to it.

Photograph the underside of the eaves along each elevation, noting any gaps, grilles or perforated strips you can see from the ground.

Eaves openings are visible from the ground with a reasonable photograph, and most owners have never looked at them at all.

Photograph the ridge and the roof slope from a distance, noting anything that appears to be a vent rather than an ordinary tile or covering.

Roof vents are easy to photograph from across a garden and impossible to find later if nobody recorded where they were.

Look into the roof space from the hatch without climbing about, and note whether daylight is visible at the edges.

What can be seen from the hatch is an observation worth recording, and it requires nothing more than standing on a ladder.

Do not move about in a roof space, move insulation, or reach towards the eaves; observe from the hatch only.

Note whether insulation appears to have been pushed towards the edges of the roof space, and photograph what you can see from the hatch.

Topping up loft insulation is among the most common owner improvements, and the edge of the roof space is where it has consequences.

Where there is a flat roof, photograph its edges from a window or the ground and note anything that appears to be an opening.

Flat roof edges do several jobs at once, and recording what is there before anything changes is worth the two photographs.

Record any opening you have been told relates to ground gas, radon or a protective arrangement, with what you were told and by whom.

These arrangements are invisible in use and easily lost with a change of ownership, so the account of them is the record.

Never obstruct, alter or investigate anything connected with ground gas protection; take any question to a qualified professional.

Note any opening that may provide air to an appliance, and record it separately from the rest of the list.

Air supply to an appliance is a separate subject with its own requirements, and it should never be treated as an ordinary vent.

Openings serving an appliance must never be obstructed or altered; any question about one belongs with a suitably qualified and registered professional.

Photograph any flue terminal on the outside of the building and note what is currently near it, without measuring or assessing anything.

What is near a terminal changes when a fence, a store or planting is added, and the before photograph is what makes that visible.

Keep these items on their own page of the record, clearly marked as items that must not be obstructed or altered by anyone.

Separating them is what makes a landscaper or a decorator read them differently from the rest of the list.

Write down who you would ask about each of these items, and keep that name with the record rather than in a project folder.

These are the items where a question needs to reach the right person quickly, and the right person is not always obvious.

Before any decking, paving, path or step is laid near the building, read the record and show it to whoever is doing the work.

Raising a surface against a wall is the most common way an opening at the base is closed, and it is done by somebody who never saw it.

Before a planting bed, raised bed or soil is placed against a wall, check the record for openings at that position.

Soil against a wall is the version of this that nobody thinks of as construction at all, which is why it goes unquestioned.

Before any render, external insulation or work to the wall face, show the record to whoever is carrying it out and keep a copy of what you sent.

Work on the wall face is where openings in the face are closed, and the trade doing it has no way of knowing they were deliberate.

Before any repointing, painting or pointing repair, show the record to whoever is doing it and mark the openings that must stay open.

These openings are read as defects, and filling them is what a careful person does unless somebody has said otherwise.

Before loft insulation is topped up or any roof work is carried out, read the record and raise the openings at the roof edge.

Insulation pushed towards the edge of a roof space is a well-intentioned improvement with consequences the owner never sees.

Before a shed, store, bin enclosure or fence is placed against the building, check the record for anything at that position.

Things placed against a wall are not thought of as building work, and they cover openings just as effectively as construction does.

Keep the record with the property papers rather than in a project folder, and make sure more than one person knows it exists.

A record only one person knows about is lost the first time somebody else arranges work on the building.

Give a copy of the marked elevations to any trade working on the outside of the building, before they start rather than afterwards.

A marked elevation handed over at the start takes a minute and is the only realistic protection these openings have.

On a new or substantially altered building, ask at handover what the openings are, where they are and what must never be covered.

This is the one moment when somebody who knows the answer is available, and the question is very rarely asked.

Repeat the walk from time to time, comparing against the earlier record, and note anything that has changed since.

Changes accumulate quietly over years, and the comparison between two dated records is what makes them visible.

Keep the record with the documents that pass on at a sale, so that a future owner inherits it along with the building.

A new owner has no way of knowing which gaps in their building are deliberate, and this record is the only thing that tells them.