Load Path Conversation Preparation Checklist

Sketch each storey on its own sheet, roughly to scale, marking every wall you can see and naming each room in the same way on every sheet.

Separate sheets that use consistent room names let anyone lay them side by side and see what lines up, which is the whole point of the exercise.

Choose one feature visible on more than one storey, such as a window on the same elevation or a chimney breast, and measure from it on each floor before comparing positions.

Rooms are rarely stacked as neatly as people assume, and a common reference is the only reliable way to compare one storey with another.

Mark on your sketches which walls appear to sit over one another and label them as apparent rather than confirmed, since finishes conceal a great deal.

Labelling the observation honestly keeps it useful later, when other people are reading your notes without you standing next to them.

Note any upper-storey wall that appears to land somewhere in the middle of the room below rather than over another wall, and photograph the position from both floors.

These are exactly the arrangements an engineer wants to know about, and they are easy to spot from a plan and almost invisible from within one room.

Photograph each room from the same corner on every storey so that the sets can be compared, and label each photograph with the storey and room name.

Consistent viewpoints make a photo set readable by someone who has never been in the building.

List the places you could not observe, such as behind fitted wardrobes, inside boxing or above a lowered ceiling, and record them as unknown rather than leaving them blank.

A clearly stated gap is far more useful than an apparently complete drawing that quietly leaves something out.

Note whether the property has a cellar, crawl space or void beneath any part of the ground floor, and sketch roughly how far it extends under the rooms above.

A void under one part of a building and solid ground under another is a common arrangement that changes the picture considerably.

Note what you observe about the ground floor in each room: whether it feels solid underfoot, whether boards are visible, and whether anything moves or sounds hollow.

These are observations you can make without disturbing anything, and they give an engineer something to check rather than discover.

Do not lift boards, open hatches or take up floor finishes to look further; what is under a floor is for a qualified professional to examine.

Walk around the outside at low level and photograph any vents or grilles, noting where they are blocked, buried by raised ground or covered by later work.

Their number and position tell an engineer something about the construction, and blocked or buried ones are worth flagging early.

Look inside the cupboard under the stairs, the meter cupboard and any cellar access, and photograph anything structural that is visible without moving belongings.

These are frequently the only places where construction is visible without opening anything up, and they are easy to overlook.

Note anything you know about floors having been replaced, levelled or relaid, including anything mentioned in your purchase survey.

Replaced floors often sit differently from original ones, and the paperwork occasionally explains something the building does not.

Write down that what lies beneath the walls is unknown to you, and keep it on the list as a question rather than filling it in from what seems likely.

Foundations are almost never visible, and an honest blank is what allows the right investigation to be discussed at the right time.

Never dig alongside a wall or excavate to look at what is beneath it; any inspection at that level is for a qualified structural engineer to arrange.

From the loft hatch, photograph the timber arrangement in several directions and note whether the timbers appear to run towards the walls you are interested in.

Photographs from the hatch answer a surprising number of questions and can be taken safely without entering the space.

Note the position of any water tank, cylinder, stored belongings or boarded area in the loft, and mark them on your top-storey sketch.

Tanks and stored loads sit in one place and have done since somebody put them there, so their positions belong on the plan alongside the walls.

From outside, note where the roof changes shape: valleys, hips, dormers, a lower section over an extension, or a flat area, and photograph each from ground level.

Changes in roof shape usually mean changes in what is happening underneath, and they are easiest to see from the garden.

Note whether the loft has been converted, part converted, boarded out or altered in any way, and gather any paperwork relating to that work.

A converted loft changes what has been done to the storeys below it, and the drawings from that project are extremely useful now.

Note any timbers, struts or posts in the loft that appear to land on a wall or ceiling below, and photograph where each one meets whatever it stands on.

Where roof timbers land is often the reason a wall below matters, and these connections are visible from the hatch in many properties.

Write down anything you cannot see clearly in the loft, and leave stored belongings, boarding and timbers exactly where they are.

Moving things to get a better view risks both damage and injury, and an engineer will want to see the space as it is.

Roof timbers, tanks and boarding must be left exactly as they are; ask a qualified structural engineer what may be examined in a loft and by whom.

Note which way the floorboards run in every room where they are visible, and mark the direction on your sketch of that storey with an arrow.

Board direction across a whole storey tells a more useful story than the same observation in one room.

Look at each ceiling in raking light and note any regular lines of fixings, board joints or rows of light fittings, and photograph what you see.

Ceilings frequently show the arrangement above them, and low-angle light makes visible what direct light hides.

Look through access panels, service hatches and loft hatches that already exist, and photograph what is visible without removing or unscrewing anything.

Panels and hatches that already exist were put there to be looked through, so using them leaves the building exactly as you found it.

Note where a ceiling appears to have been replaced or lowered, such as a room whose ceiling is noticeably lower than the one next door, and photograph the junction.

Lowered ceilings frequently conceal earlier alterations, and the change in level is the clue that leads to the paperwork.

Write each of these observations as a plain statement of what you saw, without adding what you think it means about how the building works.

Notes that stop at observation stay useful; notes that reach a conclusion get quoted back later as though somebody qualified had said it.

Interpreting spans, directions and arrangements is work for a qualified structural engineer; your record should stop at what is visible.

Photograph every boxed-in downstand, bulkhead or dropped section of ceiling in the property, noting in each case where it begins and where it stops.

Where a downstand ends is usually more informative than the downstand itself, and it is the part people forget to photograph.

Note any post, column or prop anywhere in the property, including in a cellar, garage or outbuilding, and record whether it appears permanent or left over from earlier work.

Props left standing long after the work that needed them are more common than people expect and are worth raising every time.

Never remove or reposition a post or prop to see whether it is needed; ask a qualified structural engineer what each one is doing.

Look for straight lines of patched or differently textured ceiling, and photograph each with a note of which rooms it crosses.

A straight repair line across a ceiling usually marks where something was removed or added, which is a useful lead.

Note where a garage, outbuilding or extension meets the main building, and photograph the junction inside and outside where you can reach it.

These junctions are frequently where two different arrangements meet, and they are usually visible without any disturbance.

Gather any drawings, calculations or letters from previous alterations, whatever their age, and put them with your sketches even if you cannot read them.

An engineer can read an old drawing quickly, and one sheet from a previous project can replace a whole round of investigation.

If you are able to contact previous owners or long-standing neighbours, note what they remember about work done, keeping it clearly labelled as recollection.

Recollection is not evidence, but somebody who watched the work happen can name a room or a stage of work that no drawing records.

Mark on your sketch where each end of any new support would need to sit, based on what you want to open up, and photograph both positions.

Naming the end points turns a vague ambition into a question an engineer can answer, even before anything is designed.

For each end point, write down what is directly beneath it on every storey below, right down to the lowest level you can observe.

The path continues downwards past the room being altered, and owners routinely stop looking one storey too early.

Note whether a cellar, void, drain run or other feature sits beneath either end point, and photograph anything visible from existing access.

What sits under a bearing point is one of the first questions an engineer asks, and the answer is sometimes visible from a cellar.

Note any window, door or existing opening close to either end point on the storeys below, and photograph the relationship between them.

An opening below a bearing point changes the discussion, and the relationship between the two is far easier to show in a photograph than to describe.

Note whether each end point falls on an external wall, an internal wall or a wall shared with a neighbouring property, and photograph the outside face where relevant.

Which kind of wall each end lands on affects who else needs to be involved as well as what has to be investigated.

An end point landing on a wall you share with another household changes who has to be involved; confirm locally what procedure that triggers.

Write down that what happens where the load reaches the ground is unknown to you, and keep it as a question for the engineer rather than an assumption.

This is the question owners most often skip over, and it is frequently the one that determines what is realistic.

Mark each note in your record as observed, assumed or told to me, and keep the three categories visually separate on the page.

Records get passed to people who were never in the building, and an unlabelled assumption reads exactly like a fact once nobody recalls writing it.

Date every sketch and photograph set, and keep superseded versions rather than overwriting them as your understanding changes.

Being able to show when something was observed matters if the building changes or a question arises later.

Head the record with a line saying it is an owner observation exercise that nobody qualified has checked, so no builder or family member treats it as an instruction.

Owner sketches have a habit of travelling, and that opening line is what stops one being handed to a trade as though it were a design.

No sketch, photograph or note in your record establishes what any part of the building is doing; only a qualified structural engineer can do that.

When you send the record on, describe it as observations gathered for discussion rather than as your view of how the building works.

How you introduce the material shapes how it is treated, and neutral framing keeps the professional conversation open.

Decide who keeps the record up to date as new information appears, and note where the current version is stored.

Projects generate information continuously, and a record with no named owner falls out of date almost as soon as the first visit is over.