Structural Surveyors

Properties are built to last

Perhaps not forever, although with care and maintenance applied by owners and occupiers on a regular basis, the life of a property can be extended.

Defects in properties can result from many factors that may occur singularly or severally including but not limited to problematic trees, over-loading of parts of the building, unsuitable specification of materials, reduction of stiffness of the structure, ingress of wet weather, changes in ground conditions, poor design, improper detailing, low standard of construction, leaking drains, extreme weather conditions and accidental damage from fire and flooding and explosions.

Before cost-effective repair options can be recommended it is vitally important to determine and understand and report upon the most likely cause or if certain the actual cause of the defect and to eliminate any of the suspected possible causes. This can involve comprehensive inspection implemented by ‘opening-up’ of the property below the readily visible external and internal surfaces during which the finishes and fittings and decorations might need to be removed to enable scrutiny of the underlying structure. Depending upon the condition of the defect, the inspection may require underground inspections to be conducted and reported upon by other specialists so that a fuller picture of the cause can be formulated and presented.

THe Consultants has experience in conducting surveys and reporting upon defects and making recommendations for repairs for a variety of buildings and structures of principal constructions including aluminium gantries, filler-joist clinker concrete floors, brickwork retaining walls and medium-rise brickwork constructions, cut-timber and pre-fabricated timber frameworks, rolled steelwork and cold-formed steelwork mezzanine floors and frames, and reinforced concrete elements and frames.

Structures can be forgiving to abuse and distress but only for so long before they require comprehensive repair or replacement. Early as possible expert intervention to conduct the diagnosis and prognosis is the medicine that will either relieve or cure the condition; we like to think that our efforts help to return the structure to its best possible health.

Structural Survey Case Study

Riverside House, Shoreham, Kent.

Maintenance of the structure of properties is an aspect that is sometimes given second place to fixtures, fittings and general decoration. In most cases, structural defects manifest themselves at a late stage after prolonged lack of maintenance when the significance becomes great.

These beams are part of a soffit of a filler-joist construction that forms the ceiling of a defunct boiler room in a cellar. This construction also provides support to the main rear elevation of the three-storey property. The clock had been ticking for a long time before THe Consultants was appointed to investigate the present condition and make recommendations for the cost-effective repairs.

All of the exposed profiles of the steel are corroded. The half-thickness of the majority of the bottom flanges have suffered from full lamination. Significant deflections of the steels are evident. In theory the beams should have failed. Fortunately there is no apparent sign of distress caused to the supported rear elevation of the property so the intervention is not a complete last resort.After conducting a detailed inspection of the cellar, a comprehensive report has been prepared to discuss available options and make recommendations for the essential yet economical repairs. Minor disruption during the remedial works is unavoidable but ‘there is no gain without pain’. This pain will be short-lived and the gain will preserve the integrity of the property for generations, allowing it to maintain its unblemished character in this picturesque area of the countryside.