Glasgow, survey
Timber survey in Glasgow
One visit covering dry rot, wet rot and woodworm together, written up so you can act on it. In a tenement, most of the difficulty is not the diagnosis, it is getting to the timber.
- We look before we priceNo quote without a survey
- Written reportSomething a lender will accept
- West of Scotland onlyGlasgow to Ayr and Stirling
The national timber survey page explains what a survey is and why nobody can price this work without one. This page is about what the visit is like in Glasgow property, because the tenement adds a problem that a detached house does not have: the parts of the building causing the damage are frequently not the parts you own.
The purpose of the visit is simple. Establish what the timber is doing, establish what is wetting it, and write both down. Everything below is about how much of that can be achieved on the day, which in the West is mostly a question of access.
Book a survey
Three questions. You do not need to know which problem you have.
What the visit actually covers
- The outside first. Rones, hoppers, downpipe discharge points, the state of the pointing, ground levels against the wall, airbrick positions, and where water is visibly tracking down the stonework. In a tenement this means the rear elevation as well as the front, which is where the back court access question starts.
- The close and common parts. Stair walls, landing ceilings, the stair window and cupola, and whether there is a musty note in the air that was not there before.
- Inside the property. Moisture readings at the walls that matter, floors checked for movement near the perimeter rather than in the middle, cupboards, skirtings, window reveals and bay window corners.
- Opening up, where permitted. A board lifted in the right place, a section of loose plaster taken off, a hatch opened. This is the step that turns an opinion into a finding.
- The written report. What was found, where, what is causing it, what could not be inspected and why, and what putting it right involves.
The access problem, which is the Glasgow part
In a house, a surveyor can walk the whole perimeter, open the loft and lift a board. In a tenement flat, three of the most important things to look at may all be somebody else's to open.
- The back court. Reaching the rear elevation usually means a shared close door, a back court gate or a neighbour's garden. A rear gutter that nobody can get eyes on is a survey with a hole in it.
- The shared gutter, rone or wallhead. These often cannot be properly assessed from the ground. Roof access on a common roof needs agreement from the other owners, so it is rarely something that can be arranged on the same visit.
- The neighbouring flat. Where dry rot is suspected of having travelled through a party wall, the only way to know is to look at the other side of it. That takes a conversation with a neighbour, and sometimes the neighbour is a landlord in another city.
- The roof space. The hatch is frequently in a common landing ceiling rather than inside a flat, which makes the loft a common part and the access a shared arrangement.
- The under-floor void. There is no hatch. Getting in means lifting a board, and if the floor is tiled, glued or under fitted units, there may be no reasonable way in at all.
None of that is a reason to put the survey off. It is a reason to spend ten minutes before the visit working out who holds the keys, because an hour of asking neighbours beforehand is worth more to the report than anything else you can do.
What helps before the visit
- Clear the cupboard under the stairs and anything against a suspect wall
- Find out who your factor is, if the building has one, and whether they hold keys
- Ask a neighbour in advance about back court or rear access
- Dig out any previous report, guarantee or record of past work on the building
- Note when you first saw the problem, and what the weather was doing
A survey cannot see through a floor, and an honest one says so.Some of what is under your boards or inside your walls only becomes known when the opening up starts, and in dry rot that is particularly true because the fungus travels further than it shows. What a good report does is tell you clearly which findings are observed, which are inferred, and what was not accessible on the day, so you know where the uncertainty sits before you commit to a budget. Any report that reads as though everything was seen and nothing is in doubt is worth a second look.
What you get, and what it is useful for
You get the findings in writing whether or not any work follows. That document does several jobs in the West beyond telling you what is wrong.
- It is the evidence that moves a common repair along at an owners meeting or with a factor, which matters because in Glasgow the cause is so oftenshared property.
- It gives a landlord or letting agent a dated record, which is more useful at the next changeover than atreatment invoice with no findings attached.
- It is something a lender or a solicitor will accept as a specialist opinion when a purchase or a remortgage raises a timber query.
- It tells you when the answer is nothing. Historic woodworm and old, dried out wet rot damage are both common findings in this city, and being told so in writing is a perfectly good outcome.
Questions about survey visits in Glasgow
Do I need to be there for the survey?
Somebody with authority to allow boards to be lifted does, and ideally it is you. A surveyor who cannot open anything up can only report on what is visible, which in a tenement flat with a fitted carpet is almost nothing. If you cannot attend, arrange for someone who can give permission on your behalf, and tell us in advance which rooms and cupboards can be disturbed.
The problem is in the close and I do not control access to the back court. Is that a problem?
It is the most common access problem in Glasgow, and it is usually solvable with a bit of notice. Closes, back court gates and drying greens are shared, so getting to the rear elevation often means a neighbour opening a door or a factor providing a key. It is worth asking around the stair before the visit rather than on the day, because a rear elevation that cannot be seen is the single biggest gap a tenement survey can end up with.
I have not bought the flat yet. Can you survey it?
Yes, with the owner’s permission, and buyers are a good share of the work. Arrange it through the selling agent, and be realistic about what a viewing slot allows: opening up a floor in somebody else’s property is a bigger ask than looking at a wall. Tell us at the enquiry stage that it is a pre-purchase visit and what access has been agreed, so the report is clear about what could and could not be inspected.
Will you need to lift my laminate or move the kitchen units?
Not without asking first, and usually not at all. The aim is to reach the timber at the points that matter, which is normally near an external wall, in a cupboard, or through an existing hatch. Glued or click laminate over the whole floor makes that genuinely awkward, and where there is no way in without damage the report will say the void could not be inspected rather than guess at what is under there.
How long does a visit take?
A single flat with reasonable access is a short visit. A whole tenement with a close, a back court, a wallhead and several flats to look at is not, and neither is a house where the loft is boarded and full. What extends a visit in the West is almost always access rather than the size of the property, which is why the questions we ask when you enquire are mostly about who can open what.
Book a survey
Three questions. You do not need to know which problem you have.