Subs: Inspection Flashcards
What are the FOUR steps when carrying out an inspection?
- Consider your personal safety (firms Health & Safety procedures for a site inspection)
- Inspection of the local area
- External inspection
- Internal inspection
What should you take on an inspection with you?
- Mobile phone
- Laser Measurer
- File, plans and other supporting information
- Personal protective equipment (PPE) such as a fluorescent jacket, steel-toed boots, non-slip soled shoes, ear defenders, gloves, goggles and hard hat
- Pen and paper / Dictaphone
What should you consider in the immediate surrounding area of the property when conducting an inspection?
- Location / aspect / local facilities / public transport / business vibrancy
- Contamination / environmental hazards / flooding / high voltage power lines / electricity substations
- Comparable evidence / local market conditions / agents’ boards
What should you consider when conducting an external inspection?
- 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 should you consider when conducting an internal inspection?
- Layout and specification - flexibility and obsolescence
- Repair and maintenance
- Defects
- Services - age and condition
- Statutory compliance e.g. asbestos, building regulations, health and safety, Equality Act, fire safety and planning
- Fixtures and fittings and improvements
- Compliance with lease obligations
What are the THREE different purposes of inspection?
- Valuation - valuation influencers
- Property management - policing the lease
- Agency - marketability issues
If inspecting a property for valuation purposes, what would you be looking out for?
Valuation influencers -
Factors which can influence the valuation of a property such as location, tenure, aspect, form of construction, defects, current condition, occupation details
If inspecting a property for property management purposes, what would you be looking out for?
- Occupied: Policing the lease - check the lease compliance, statutory compliance, state of the building, requirement for repairs/redecoration, user and details of the actual occupier
- Unoccupied: check statutory compliance, state of the building, repair and maintenance issues, security arrangements, landscaping, risk of vandalism and damage to the building
If inspecting a property for agency purposes, what would you be looking out for?
Marketability issues -
Current condition of the building, repair and maintenance issues, statutory compliance, services, presentation and flexibility of the accommodation and its marketability
What are the FOUR common forms of foundation?
- Trench or strip footings - generally used for residential dwellings, for walls and closely spaced columns
- Raft - a slab foundation over the whole site to spread the load for lightweight structures. Usually used on made up/remediated land and sandy soil conditions
- Piled - long and slender reinforced concrete cylinders (piles in the ground to deeper strata when less good load-bearing ground conditions/high loads
- Pad - a slab foundation system under individual or groups of columns so that the column load is spread evenly
What is the main method of construction for industrial buildings?
Steel portal frame building with insulated profiled steel cladding walls and roof
What is the current institutional specification for industrial buildings?
- Minimum 8m clear eaves height with 10% roof lights
- Minimum 30 kN / sqm floor loading
- Plastic coated steel profiled cladding with brick or blockwork walls to approximately 2m
- Full height loading doors (electrically operated)
- 3 phase electricity power (415 Volts)
- 5-10% office content and WC facilities
- Main services capped off
- Approximate site cover of 40%
What is the difference between an inherent and a latent defect?
- Inherent defect: defect in the design or a material which has always been present
- Latent defect: fault to the property that could not have been discovered by a reasonably thorough inspection of the property
What is the purpose of snagging a newly built property?
- Check the newly built property to identify defects in the build
- Enables you to highlight them to the developer to allow them to fix the issues
What FOUR steps should you follow if you identify any building defects during an inspection?
- Take photos of the defect
- Try to establish the cause of damage whilst on site
- Inform your client of your investigations
- Recommend specialist advice from a building surveyor or in the case of movement, a structural engineer
