We recommend that you get a professional survey carried out on your building every five years. In between, take a proper look at the building yourself using this guide. If you cannot get owners to take your building’s condition seriously, it might also be worth carrying out your own survey and discussing your findings with your neighbours.

Get prepared

You need to communicate what you’ve found to your co-owners, so get set up at the start:

• Get copies of plans and elevations of your building if you have them
• Or take photographs and print them in black and white, so you can write on them
• Download the survey checklist below and check it covers all the features of your building
• Print off extra sheets if you can, so you have enough to cover all the windows

On your plans and photos, number the chimneys, windows, dormers, and anything else you have more than one of, so you can keep track of what you’ve found.

It may be more pleasant to carry out a survey on a dry day, but wet days can reveal overflowing gutters and drips where it should be dry.

Download our DIY building survey checklist

Safe access for checking your building

• Get as much height as you can to check the roof – maybe ask a neighbour across the road to let you look out of their top flat window
• If you need to look from the road, get someone to help keep an eye open for traffic
• Can you get safe access to your loft? – you might need someone to hold a ladder, and use crawl boards to avoid putting your foot through a ceiling
• You may be able to access the roof through a hatch
• Don’t go out on the roof unless you are experienced and have a harness and a sound fixing point for the harness
• Grab a torch, binoculars, camera, clipboard, hard hat, and tough boots

What to check

Drainage

Gutters and downpipes
Check every 6 months. Look for:

• staining underneath a gutter
• staining behind a downpipe

Drains and ground levels

• overflowing drains
• build up of ground levels
• clear underfloor air vents

Roof level
Check every 6 months. Look for:

• problems with gutters
• plant growth, algae and moss anywhere on building
• monitor bird activity and clean gutters more frequently if extensive

Central valleys and ‘secret’ parapet gutters
Check every 6 months. Look for:

• running overflows
• if possible, check the leadwork or finish for any cracks

Roof finish
Check every year. Look for:

• slipped and missing slates or tiles
• missing ridges
• sagging ridges

Flat roof
Check every year. Look for:

• patching
• blistering
• cracking
• lead corrosion

Chimneys
Check every year. Look for:

• copings and pots – wallhead chimneys
• copings and pots – mutual chimneys
• pointing and render (look for any cracks appearing)
• damage from aerial fixings

Flashings
Check every year. Look at:

• skews
• valleys
• chimneys
• other flashings

Dormers
Check every year. Look for:

• timber and cills
• vertical slating
• ridges and hips

Inside the loft
Check every year. Look for:

• condensation/mould/rot
• damp on timbers or ceilings
• adequate ventilation

External features

Perimeter fences and railings
Check every year. Look for:

• loose balusters in railings to basement

Walls

Front stonework (ashlar)
Check every two years. Look for:

• failing surface repairs
• stones adjacent to previous surface repairs
• cills, canopies, hoods, and string courses
• mullions
• pointing
• cracks
• bulges

Rear and gable stonework (rougher undressed stones)
Check every two years. Look for:

• pointing
• cracks
• plant growth
• stone decay

Oriels and bays
Check every two years. Look for:

• mullions
• cracking at ends of lintels
• cracking at base

Inside the close

Close wall plasterwork and ceilings
Check every year. Look for:

• staining around skylight windows
• cracked glass

The close stairs
Check every two years. Look for:

• gaps in stairs
• broken treads
• worn treads
• loose balusters
• separation cracks

Close floor and landings
Check every two years. Look for:

• hollow sounding ground floor
• gaps or cracks in landings

Close tiles
Check every five years. Look for:

• hollow sounds when wall tiles tapped

Close paintwork
Check every five years. Look for:

• flaking and stains

Close windows (sash and case)
Check every five years. Look for:

• can close windows open?
• condition of paintwork, mastic, and cills

External features

• gaps, cracks, and wear in external stairs
• steel supports to external stairs
• bulges in retaining walls

Windows
Check every five years. Look for:

• paint condition (normally individual responsibility)
• lintels
• mastic failure
• condition of cills