Foundation Condition Questions Checklist

Walk the outside of the building and note where the ground surface sits relative to the lowest visible course of brick, stone or render, and where that relationship changes along a wall.

Ground built up against a wall is one of the observations owners can make reliably, and it often shapes the first questions an engineer asks.

Do not dig away, lower or build up ground against a wall to improve the situation; ask a qualified professional what is appropriate here first.

Note every air brick or low-level ventilation grille around the building, and whether any is blocked, painted over, buried in soil or covered by paving, decking or a planter.

Owners can see this from the garden, and a covered vent is easy to describe accurately without needing any tools.

Photograph the base of each external wall along its full length, keeping the camera level and taking in every corner, then label each photograph with which wall it shows.

Corners and junctions come up repeatedly in these conversations, and labelled photographs save a great deal of time at a first meeting.

Record any patch of different brick, stone, render or mortar at low level, and note whether it forms a band along the wall, an isolated patch or a vertical line.

Do not conclude what earlier patching means or whether it relates to movement; note where it is and let a qualified structural engineer interpret it.

Note where a damp proof course line is visible at all, and where paving, a step, planting or a rendered skirt runs across or above it.

Whether this line can even be seen is a useful factual observation, and it is one an owner can make without opening anything up.

Write down anything built hard against the foot of a wall, including a raised bed, a bin store, a lean-to slab, a fuel tank, a boiler flue terminal or an outdoor tap.

Items built against a wall are usually invisible in an owner description because they are thought of as garden features rather than part of the building.

Follow each downpipe to the bottom and write down what happens there, including whether it enters a gully, a pipe below ground, a water butt or simply discharges onto the ground.

Where roof water actually goes is asked early in these conversations and is often different from what an owner assumed.

Go outside during heavy rain and note where water pools, overflows or runs against the building, because none of this is visible once the ground has dried out.

This is the single observation an owner is well placed to make and a visiting professional usually cannot, since they arrive when it happens to be dry.

Note any staining, moss line, algae or washed out mortar on a wall that suggests water repeatedly runs over the same spot, and photograph it.

Do not treat any of this as a finding about the foundations; record where it is and leave interpretation to a qualified structural engineer or surveyor.

Record which way paths, paving and any driveway fall, judged by where a puddle forms rather than by measuring anything, and note if any surface falls towards the building.

A rough observation of where water sits is genuinely useful, while owner measurements risk being mistaken for survey information.

Note whether anyone has altered a gutter, downpipe, gully, patio or garden level since you have known the property, and write down what changed and where.

Changes to how water is handled around a building often precede the things owners later ask about, and the sequence matters to a professional.

Mark on a rough sketch of the property where every inspection cover, gully, drain grating, stopcock and utility box sits, and note roughly how far each one is from the building.

A sketch of what is visible on the surface is one of the most useful things an owner can bring, even when it is far from precise.

Note any inspection cover or gully that is cracked, sunken, standing proud of the surrounding paving or set hard against a wall, and photograph each one.

Do not lift covers, rod drains or enter any chamber; ask a qualified drainage professional what inspection is appropriate and who should carry it out.

Write down anything you know about past digging near the building, including a service trench, a pond that was filled in, a tree that was taken out or a structure demolished.

Ground history is rarely written down anywhere, so what the owner remembers is frequently the only source a professional has to work from.

Note where paving, a path, a step or a threshold has sunk, tipped or opened a gap, and record exactly where along the building each one occurs.

Do not relay, wedge or make good a sunken surface before it has been seen; ask a qualified professional whether it should be left as found.

Ask your utility providers and any previous owner what services cross the plot, and treat the position of everything buried as unknown until it has been confirmed.

Assumed service positions are a common cause of trouble as soon as anyone digs, and the assumption usually originates with an owner sketch.

Note whether the ground slopes towards or away from the building on each side, described plainly as falls away sharply, falls gently or is roughly level.

Plain descriptions of slope give a professional a usable picture and avoid the owner producing figures that could be misread as measured levels.

Record what covers the ground on each side of the building, such as lawn, hard paving, gravel, bare soil, decking or a concrete slab, and note where the covering changes.

Ground cover can affect how water reaches the ground beside a building, and it is one of the easiest things for an owner to describe accurately.

Write down anything you know or suspect about filled ground, a former structure, an old outbuilding, a well or a cellar that once existed on or near the plot.

Do not treat local recollection as established fact; ask a qualified structural engineer what records or investigation would be needed to confirm any of it.

Note any feature holding back soil near the building, including a garden wall with higher ground behind it, a step in levels, a bank or a sunken light well.

Do not judge whether a retaining feature is doing its job or is affected by anything else; that assessment belongs with a qualified structural engineer.

Record whether a neighbouring property, road, field or garden sits noticeably higher or lower than yours, and note where along the boundary the change happens.

Differences in level across a boundary are frequently missed in an owner description and can be central to the question being asked.

Note whether any gap, crack, sticking door or opening behaves differently during prolonged dry weather, and whether it eases again after sustained rain.

Do not conclude anything from a pattern you notice; describe what you observed and when, and let a qualified structural engineer decide what it signifies.

Write down when you first noticed each thing, as precisely as you honestly can, and say plainly where your recollection is uncertain rather than filling the gap.

Honest uncertainty is far more useful to a professional than a confident guess, which can send an assessment in the wrong direction.

Note whether the soil close to the building pulls back and opens up in dry spells, and record which sides of the property this happens on.

This is an easy observation to make while walking the garden and is a detail owners rarely think to mention.

Record whether an external gap in a path, patio or step appears to widen and close again, rather than only ever opening further.

Whether something opens and closes is an observation, not a conclusion; do not use it to reassure yourself before a qualified professional has seen it.

Photograph the same spot from the same position each time you look, ideally with a fixed reference in shot, so any change can be compared like for like.

Photographs taken from varying angles are hard to compare, and a repeatable position turns a set of pictures into a usable record.

Find the survey or valuation report you received when the property was bought, and mark any wording in it about the ground, drainage, cracking or movement.

Owners often remember a report saying nothing important, and rereading it with a specific question in mind frequently turns up something relevant.

Look for paperwork from previous below-ground work at the property, including drainage repairs, a new soakaway, a driveway rebuild or anything done under an insurance claim.

Do not treat old paperwork as proof that a matter was resolved; hand it over and let a qualified structural engineer judge what it shows.

Check whether anything in the pack from the purchase referred to local ground conditions, and put those papers with the rest of what you are assembling.

Material gathered at purchase is rarely looked at again, yet it is often the only written record of the site an owner has.

Ask your insurer whether the property has any recorded claim history relating to movement or subsidence, and keep their answer in writing.

Insurance positions vary between policies and providers; take the answer only from your own insurer and do not rely on anything said informally.

Gather any drawings you hold that show anything below ground, including drainage layouts and anything prepared for an extension whether or not it was ever built.

Drawings prepared for work that never happened still record what was known about the site at the time and are worth putting on the table.

Ask what investigation would be needed to answer your question, who would arrange it, who would carry it out and who is responsible for putting the ground back.

Reinstatement is routinely left unsaid, and it is far easier to settle before anyone has opened up the ground.

Write down where you would and would not be willing for the ground to be opened, naming any planting, paving, feature or run of surfacing you would want protected.

Owner preferences about the garden are legitimate information, and stating them early avoids an awkward conversation once someone has arrived to start.

Ask whether access to a neighbouring garden or property might be needed, and treat that as a conversation to open before anything is arranged.

Access that was assumed rather than agreed is a common reason investigation is arranged and then cannot proceed.

Pass on everything you know about where buried services are likely to run, and say clearly which parts of that are certain and which parts are your assumption.

Do not dig to find out where a service runs; locating buried services belongs with the relevant qualified trade and unmarked runs are a real hazard.

Ask what you will be given once any investigation is complete, including whether photographs and a written note of what was found come to you.

What is seen in an open hole cannot be seen again once it is filled, so the record made at that moment is the only lasting one.

Hold off filling, patching, repointing or decorating over a crack until it has been seen, because covering it removes the evidence somebody needs to look at.

Once a crack has been made good, nobody can assess what it looked like; leave it as found and ask a qualified structural engineer to see it first.

Avoid removing, heavily pruning or newly planting a tree close to the building before asking, and confirm locally whether any tree on the plot is protected.

Tree work near buildings and tree protection rules both vary; ask a qualified professional and confirm locally with the relevant local authority first.

Do not dig alongside a wall to see what is underneath, however shallow the hole would be or however carefully you intend to do it.

Excavation close to an existing building belongs with a qualified professional who understands what is being exposed and what it needs while it is open.

Set aside any opinion offered by someone who has not seen the property, including confident views from neighbours, online groups or a passing trade caller.

Remote opinions travel fast and are hard to unlearn, and they frequently frame how an owner thinks about the property before anyone qualified has attended.

Hold off committing to anything that depends on the answer, including ordering materials, agreeing a start on site or fixing a layout around an assumption.

Decisions made while the question is open tend to survive the answer, because by then somebody has already paid for or promised something.