Inspection Flashcards
What is the process when undertaking an inspection?
- Consider your personal safety – know you firm’s H&S procedure for a site inspection.
- Inspection of the local area
- External Inspection
- Internal Inspection
What advice does RICS Surveying Safely set out?
- Personal and corporate responsibilities for property professionals (including H&S acts, employers liability insurance)
- Legal considerations and duties – for employers and employees
- Assessing hazards and risks
- Property professional’s places of work (including emergency arrangements and building services)
- Occupational health (including stress and bullying)
- Fire safety
- Visiting premises and sites (including travel arrangements, lone working, PPE)
- Procurement and management of construction work (including CDM regulations)
What would you look for when inspecting internally?
- Layout and specification – flexibility & obsolescence
- Repair and maintenance
- Defects
- Services – age and condition
- Statutory compliance e.g. asbestos, building regulations, H&S, Equality Act 2012, fire safety and planning
- Fixtures and fittings improvements
- Compliance with lease obligations
What would you look out for when inspecting externally?
- Method of construction
- Repair and condition of the exterior
- Car parking/access/loading arrangements
- Defects/structural movement
- Check site boundaries with OS map and/or Title Plan
What is efflorescence?
White marks caused by hydroscopic salts in the brickwork. It is formed when water reacts with the natural salts, by way of a chemical process, contained within the construction material and mortar.
What are the typical institutional specifications of a shop?
- Most new shop units are constructed of either a steel or concrete frame.
- Services capped off.
- Concrete floor and no suspended ceiling.
- Let in a shell condition with no shop front, ready for the retailer’s fitting out works.
How are office buildings typically constructed?
- New office buildings: steel or concrete frame.
- Steels frame buildings usually have less columns and a wider span between columns.
- Concrete frame buildings usually have more columns, lower floor heights and a shorter span between columns.
What is the current institutional specification for Grade A offices?
- Full access raised floors with floor boxes
- Carpeting
- Approximate ceiling height of 2.6m
- Ceiling void of 350mm and a floor void of 150mm
- Suspended ceiling
- LG7 compliant lighting
- Approximate floor loading of 3-5 kN per sq m with an allowance of 1kN per sq m for partitioning
- Air conditioning
- Double glazed windows
- Passenger lifts
- Maximum depth of 12m – 15m to allow for natural light to the office area
What are the common defects you would expect to see in a period building? (Residential, office, shop)
Dry rot, wet rot, tile slippage on the roof, death watch beetle, damp penetration at roof and ground floor level, water ingress around door/window openings, structural movement
What is wet rot?
Caused by damp and timber decay – signs include wet and soft timber
What is dry rot?
Caused by fungal attack – signs include fungus, strong smell, white felt/cotton wool type strands. Can destroy timber and masonry.
What are the common defects you could see in modern office buildings?
Damp penetration at roof and ground level, water damage from burst pipes or air conditioning units, structural movement, damaged cladding, cavity wall tie failure, poor mortar joints in brickwork
What can cause damp?
Rising damp from an ineffective/no damp proof course, leaking roof, defective plumbing, direct penetration, condensation
What should you do if you identify any building defects on inspection?
- Take photographs of the defect
- Try to establish the cause of the damage whilst on site
- Inform your client of your investigations
- Recommend specialist advice from a building surveyor or structural engineer (in the case of settlement)
What signs of contamination would you look out for on inspection?
Evidence of chemicals, oils, oil drums, subsidence, underground tanks, bare ground, dead vegetation, landfill
