Structural Survey Preparation Checklist

Write down in plain language what made you consider a structural visit, including when you first noticed whatever prompted it and what you were doing at the time.

A crack noticed after a storm and a crack noticed while stripping wallpaper lead to quite different opening questions, so the trigger is worth capturing.

Note who first raised the structural question, whether a surveyor, an agent, a builder or your own observation, and record their wording rather than your summary of it.

Second-hand structural comments drift as they are repeated, and the original phrasing often turns out to say something narrower than you remembered.

Record any alteration you are already contemplating, since a visit prompted by concern and a visit prompted by a planned opening are scoped quite differently.

A professional who knows an opening is being considered will look at different parts of the building from one asked only about a crack.

Ask whether the visit is intended to be a looking exercise only, and what would have to be opened up if a question cannot be settled by looking.

What can be established without opening up is for the attending professional to judge; never strip finishes or expose structure yourself in advance.

Agree in writing what the visit will cover and what it will deliberately leave out, and keep that description filed alongside whatever comes back afterwards.

Scope agreed in conversation is remembered differently by each side, and the written version is what makes the findings readable a long time later.

Ask who will actually attend, what discipline they practise and whether anything you have described falls outside what they normally deal with.

Structural, drainage, timber and ground questions sit with different specialists, and finding that out on the doorstep wastes the whole visit.

Check the loft hatch opens fully, note whether there is a fixed ladder, a loose ladder or nothing at all, and say which when the visit is arranged.

Hatches painted shut during decorating are extremely common, and discovering that on the day usually means the roof space is not seen.

Note whether the property has a cellar, crawl space or underfloor void, how it is entered, and whether the entrance has been covered over by a later floor finish.

Access hatches disappear under laminate, tiling and fitted units, and an owner is usually the only person who remembers where one used to be.

Gather keys for garages, outbuildings, side gates and meter cupboards, and check each one turns before the visit rather than on the doorstep with somebody waiting.

Rarely used locks seize, and a side gate that cannot be opened can cut off the whole of one elevation from view.

Note where there is no lighting in a loft, cellar or void, and mention it when the visit is arranged rather than assuming a torch will be enough.

A professional who knows in advance brings the right lighting, and a dark space that is only glanced at is effectively a space not seen.

Ask whether anything needs to be seen from a neighbouring property, and arrange that separately and politely well before the visit rather than on the day.

Access onto land you do not own is entirely the neighbour's decision; never enter, or ask anyone else to enter, without their agreement first.

Write down anything you consider unsafe to enter, move or stand on, and leave it exactly as it is for the professional to deal with on arrival.

Unstable stored material, damaged flooring and suspect ceilings should be pointed out to a qualified professional rather than tackled by an owner.

Move stored items away from the loft hatch and from the edges of the roof space where the roof meets the wall, so those junctions can actually be reached.

The eaves are where several structural questions concentrate, and they are also where suitcases and boxes are habitually pushed out of sight.

Pull furniture away from the walls where you have noticed anything, and note which walls stay covered by fitted units that cannot reasonably be moved.

Knowing which surfaces were visible and which were not is part of reading the findings sensibly afterwards.

Lift a corner of a loose carpet or rug where you can do so without damage, and leave fixed or glued floor finishes entirely alone.

Lifting fixed floor finishes to expose structure is work for a qualified professional, not preparation for a visit.

Note where ivy, shrubs and climbing plants hide the base of an outside wall, and decide what you can reasonably trim back yourself and what is better left undisturbed.

The base of an external wall is often the first thing looked at outside, and it is frequently the part most thoroughly hidden by planting.

Photograph anything you move or uncover before you move it, so the original position of stored items and covered features is not simply lost.

The photograph occasionally matters more than the clearance, particularly where something had been stacked against a wall for a long time.

List the areas that will stay hidden because of fitted kitchens, tiling, boarding or recent decoration, and hand that list over at the start of the visit.

A visitor told at the door which surfaces are boarded, tiled or built over can say straight away what that leaves unanswered.

Find the survey obtained when you bought the property and read the whole document rather than the summary, marking every structural comment it makes.

Purchase surveys routinely recommend further advice that nobody ever obtained, and that recommendation is often exactly what is now being revisited.

Gather any earlier engineer, surveyor or specialist report, including ones you disagreed with at the time or that were never acted upon.

An earlier opinion is evidence of what the building looked like then, which is useful even when the conclusion was disputed.

Collect paperwork relating to remedial work carried out by you or a previous owner, including anything left behind in a drawer by the people before you.

Paperwork issued for past remedial work may carry conditions of its own; ask the issuing organisation and a qualified professional what it actually covers.

Assemble drawings from any past extension or conversion, even partial or hand-drawn ones, and note which parts of the building have no paperwork at all.

The undocumented parts are usually where the interesting questions live, so knowing where the record stops is itself useful information.

Ask the local building control body what records exist for past work at the property, and confirm locally how such records are requested.

What historic records exist and how they are obtained varies by location; confirm locally rather than assuming any particular document survives.

Gather correspondence relating to any past claim touching on movement or damage, and keep it in one place rather than scattered through old files.

Insurance history is a matter for your insurer and your own adviser; take advice before repeating any of it to a buyer, a neighbour or a contractor.

Write down anything about the building that has changed since you have lived there, including work done next door and changes to the ground outside.

Owners frequently remember a neighbouring extension or a re-laid driveway that appears nowhere in any document about your property.

Note whether anything you have noticed appears or worsens in particular weather, describing what you observed rather than what you believe caused it.

Whether something moves with the seasons is one of the more informative things an owner can report, provided it is reported as observation.

Record where you have filled and repainted a crack before and whether it reopened, since a line that has been repaired more than once is worth pointing out.

How many times a line has been filled and repainted is a record of behaviour that survives only in your own recollection of the decorating.

Note any recurring sound, creak or vibration you have noticed, including what was happening at the time, such as heavy traffic outside or a door closing hard.

Context turns an alarming noise into an ordinary observation or into something worth looking at, and only you can supply the context.

Write down where water collects, overflows or discharges close to the building, and photograph it while it is actually happening rather than afterwards.

An overflowing gully is invisible in dry weather, so the photograph taken during rain is often the only evidence that survives.

Hand over what you have recorded without offering an explanation, and ask what the professional makes of it before you say what you suspect.

Owners lead a visit towards their own theory without meaning to, and an independent first view is more valuable to you than agreement.

Interpretation of anything you have observed belongs to a qualified professional; nothing an owner records proves or rules out a structural cause.

Arrange for whoever has known the building longest to be present, since the person who remembers the previous layout usually answers more than the paperwork does.

Questions about what used to be where come up constantly, and a relative who lived there earlier is often the only source of an answer.

Where the property is let or shared, agree the visit with the occupier well ahead, and settle who lets the professional in and who accompanies them.

Entering an occupied property depends on the occupier's agreement; arrange it with them directly rather than assuming any right of entry exists.

Decide where pets and small children will be while hatches, cellars and outside areas are open, and mention it when the visit is arranged.

Open hatches and propped ladders change a house considerably, and sorting this out beforehand avoids the visit being interrupted repeatedly.

Note where a vehicle can stop outside and what parking restrictions apply on your street, and confirm locally what a visitor would need to do.

Time spent circling for a space comes out of the visit, and restrictions differ enough between streets that only local confirmation is reliable.

Agree who protects floors and finishes if anything has to be lifted or entered, and note which rooms have finishes you would rather were not walked over.

Loft access in particular brings dust and debris down, and saying so beforehand is easier than complaining about it afterwards.

Write down what you are told during the visit as it is said, and read your notes back before the professional leaves rather than trusting your memory.

Structural conversations contain careful qualifications that vanish from recollection within hours, leaving a firmer conclusion than was ever offered.

Ask whether you will receive written findings or a verbal opinion only, and settle that before the visit rather than discovering it at the front door afterwards.

A verbal opinion cannot be passed to a designer, a lender or a future owner, and the difference is rarely mentioned unless somebody asks.

Ask for the limitations to be set out in writing, including which parts of the building were not reached and why they could not be seen.

An area recorded as not seen has not been assessed; treat it as unknown until a qualified professional says otherwise in writing.

Ask what would have to happen next if the findings are inconclusive, who would carry that out and what arranging it would involve for you.

Knowing the next step in advance stops an inconclusive result feeling like a dead end and helps you judge whether to take it.

Ask whether anything is better watched than acted upon, what form that watching would take and who would look at the results.

Whether monitoring is appropriate, and for how long, is a judgement for a qualified professional rather than something to settle from observation.

Ask whether the findings may be shared with a designer, a lender, an insurer or a neighbour, and whether any permission is needed before you do so.

Findings are often prepared for one recipient, and passing them on without asking can put you at odds with the person who wrote them.

Decide where the findings, notes and photographs will be stored so they can be found by whoever owns the property next, not only by you.

Structural paperwork is asked for at sale, at insurance renewal and at the start of the next project, all long after the file has been forgotten.