Inspection Flashcards
What is the 4 step process of inspection?
1) Consider personal safety
2) Inspection of the local area
3) External Inspection
4) Internal Inspection
What should you take on inspection?
- Mobile phone/camera
- Tape measure/laser
- File and plans
- PPE
- Pen and Paper
What should you consider about the immediate area?
- Location/public transport/ business vibrancy
- Contamination/ hazards/ environmental hazards e.g. flooding/ power lines/ substations
- Comparable evidence/ local market condition/ agents boards
What should you consider when inspecting externally?
- Method of construction
- Repair and condition of the exterior
- Car parking/access/ loading arrangements
- Defects/ Structural movement
- Site boundaries
- Date building
What should you consider when inspecting internally?
- Layout and specification
- Repair and Maintenance
- Defects
- Services
- Statutory Compliance – e.g. asbestos, building regs, health and safety, fire safety, equality act
- Fixtures, fittings and improvements
- Compliance with lease
What are some purposes of inpsection, and what would you be looking for?
- Valuation – factors influencing value
- Property Management – e.g. lease compliance, statutory compliance, state of building, user details, repair and maintenance issues
- Agency – Current condition, presentation, flexibility of accommodation, marketability
What are 4 common forms of foundation?
- Trench for Slip footings – residential dwellings
- Raft – slab foundation over the whole site to spread the load for lighter weight structures
- Piled – long, slender reinforced concrete in the ground to deeper strata when less good load-bearing ground conditions/high loads
- Pad – slab foundation system under individual or groups of columns so column load is spread evenly
What are two types of wall construction?
- Solid wall construction – solid brickwork with headers, normally at least one brick thick
- Cavity Wall – two layers of brickwork ties with metal ties, with a cavity that may be filled with insulation – no headers and evidence of a cavity tray/air brick or weep holes may be seen
Whats a stretcher?
brick laid horizontally, flat with the long side exposed on outer fact
Whats a header?
short end of the brick exposed
Whats Efflorscence?
white marks caused by hydroscopic salts in the brickwork- formed when water reacts
Whats Spalling?
damaged brickwork where surface bricks crumble due to freeze/thaw
What would be included in a standard shop fit out?
- Usually steel or concrete frame
- Services capped off
- Concrete floor no suspended ceiling
- Shell condition
How are offices normally constructed?
- Normally either steel or concrete frames
- Steel frames have less columns and a bigger gap between columns, concrete buildings have lower ceiling height
What are the main points in British Council for Offices Guide to Office specification 2019?
- Full access raised floors with floor boxes
- Ceiling height c.2.6-2.8m
- Ceiling void of 350mm and raised floor void of 150mm
- Air Conditioning and Double Glazing
- Passenger lifts
- 1 cycle space per 10 staff, 1 shower per 100 staff
- 8m-10m squared workspace density
What are some key types of Air Conditioning?
- VAV = Variable air volume (highest cost, most flexible)
- Fan coil = usually 4 pipe (lower initial clost, good flexibility, high running costs)
- VRV = Varaible refrigerant volume (lower initial costs, high running cost)
- Static cooling – chilled beam and displacement heating (low initial cost, low running cost but less flexibility- more natural approach)
- Mechanical ventilation – fresh air moved around building
- Heat recovery systems
- Comfort cooling
- From 2015 replacement of the low temperature refrigerant R22 is illegal – need to be more environmentally friendly.
What are some types of Office fit out?
- Shell + Core – common parts are completed, office floors are a shell for occupiers
- Cat A – to Grade A spec
- Cat B – including internal finishes and occupier requirements
- Allow 1 person for 8-10m sq.
What is industrial construction?
Basic construction is steel portal frame with insulated profiled steel cladding walls and roof
Whats a minimum institutional industrial spec?
- 8m clear eves height with 10% roof lights
- 30KN/sq m floor loating
- Plastic coated steel profile classing with brick or blockwork walls to approx. 2m
- Full height loading doors (electronically opened_
- 5-10% office content
- Approx site cover of 40%
How would you identify building defects?
- Start from the roof and work down
- Check for warranties
- Understand purpose off snagging
What steps would you take once you have identified a building defect?
1) Take photographs
2) Try to establish cause of damage
3) Inform client
4) Recommend specialist advice
What’s a latent defect?
fault to the property that could not be discovered by a reasonably thorough inspection
What’s an inherent defect?
due to a design flaw or material that has always been present
What are 3 common causes of defects?
1) Movement
2) Water
3) Damp
What are 6 ways a building can have a defect by movement?
- Subsidence is the vertical downward movement of a building foundation caused by the loss of support of the site beneath the foundation
- Heave is the expansion of the ground beneath part or all of the building – could be cause by tree removal and subsequent moisture build up
- Horizontal cracking in brickwork may indicate cavity wall tie failure
- Shrinkage cracking often occurs in new plasterwork during drying out
- Settlement cracks due to movement
- Thermal expansion/movement can also cause cracks
What are the two types of rot?
- Wet rot – damp and timber decay. Signs: wet and soft timber, high damp meter reading, fungal growth, musty smell
- Dry rot – caused by fungal attack. Signs: fungus (known as mycelium), often has orange mushroom-like fruiting bodies, strong spell and red spores, cracking paintwork
What can cause damp?
- Condensation caused by lack of ventilation and heating
- Can also be caused by leaking plumbind/ A/c units
What are some common defects in period buildings?
dry rot, wet rot, tile slippage, death watch beetle, damp penetration, water ingress around windows and doors
What are some common defects in Modern Industrial units?
roof leaks around lights, damaged cladding , cut edge corrosion, water damage from guttering, leaking from plumbing
What are some common defects in Modern Offices?
damp penetration, water damage from burst pipes/a/c, damaged cladding, cavity wall tie failure, efflorescence
What is Land remediation relief?
a tax relief applying to contaminated/derelict land, allowing companies to claim up to 150% tax deduction for expenditure in remediating certain contaminated or derelict sites.
What is in the RICS Guidance Note ‘Contamination, the Environment and Sustainability, 2010 (3rd edition)?
- Must know obligations, responsibilities and comply with the law
- Landowner normally pays for remediation
- Signs of contamination include evidence of: oils, oil drums, subsidence, underground tanks, bare ground etc.
- Three phases of investigation:
1) Phase 1: Review site history with desktop study, inspection and investigation
2) Phase 2: Investigation to identify nature and extent of contamination with detailed soil samples
3) Phase 3: Remediation report setting out remedial options, with design requirements and monitoring standards.
What should you do when valuing a site with contamination?
- Do not provide advice until specialist report is commissioned
- Caveat valuation advice with a disclaimer/ use of special assumption
- Deduct remediation costs from site value
What are deleterious materials?
- Can degrade with age causing structural problems
- Tell-tale signs include brown staining on concrete
- Examples of deleterious materials are:
- High Alumina cement
- Woodwool shuttering
- Calcium chloride
What are hazardous materials?
- Hazardous to heath
- Recommend specialist reports and make appropriate assumptions
- Check contents of asbestos register/report
- Examples are:
- Asbestos
- Lead piping
- Radon Gas
What are two documents governing Japanese knotweed?
- Law in the Environmental Protection Act 1990
- RICS Information Paper (2015 but in new consultation)
What is japanese knotweed?
- Invasive plant that can damage hard surfaces incl. foundations and tarmac
Has a purple/green hollow stem and green leaves
What are some problems with Japanese Knotweed?
- May prevent you getting a loan oon the property
- Need to be disposed of legally e.g. digging it out and removing it to a licensed landfill
- Allowing it to spread is a criminal offence under Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981
- Local Authorities can grant ASBO and fines up to £2,500 if a landlowner ignores it
What are some new guidance re. Japanese Knotweed?
RICS Information Paper (2015 but in new consultation)
- New guidance aims to create confidence and awareness that knotweed isn’t a death sentence for home sales is a key principle behind this guidance – it’s certainly not the ‘bogey plant’ that some make it out to be.
