Building firms working on old buildings sometimes need a chartered surveyor's eye: independent verification that the method is right, the correct specification for traditional fabric, or expertise in materials and methods you don't meet on every job. I work alongside contractors to provide that.
I have over twenty years of experience with traditionally-constructed buildings, including eight and a half of them commissioning and managing contractors client-side at the National Trust. That means I understand both sides of the table: what good work looks like, and what makes a surveyor useful to a contractor, and a contractor useful to a surveyor.
I work on site across Norfolk and Suffolk, close enough for a same-week visit when a question can't wait.
What I offer contractors
- Independent inspections & workmanship verification: third-party sign-off that work meets the specification and the appropriate standards, for your client's confidence and your own records.
- Specifications & schedules of work: so heritage and traditional work (e.g. lime, timber, breathable build-ups) can be priced and built correctly, with no surprises mid-job.
- Technical advice on traditional materials & methods: support for when a job hits old fabric that sits outside your firm's usual range, before it becomes a problem.
- Pre-works condition records: photographic and written schedules of condition before work starts, protecting you against disputes over pre-existing damage.
- Defect investigation support: independent diagnosis when something on a job is not behaving as expected, and a clear account of cause and remedy.
- Heritage input for tenders: conservation expertise to help your firm bid for, and deliver, listed-building and traditional-construction work with credibility.
When contractors call me in
A tender for listed or traditional work. The client's team wants conservation competence evidenced in the bid, and the firm has the skills without the paperwork to show them.
Opening up has found something outside the usual range. Clay lump behind plasterboard, a wall plate rotted where nobody could see it, a flint elevation somebody else repointed in cement.
A specification that says "lime mortar" and nothing else. Pricing that is guesswork until somebody says which lime, which sand, what mix, and why.
A disagreement about workmanship. An independent inspection settles it faster and more cheaply than an argument does, whichever way it goes.
What independence means in practice
The independence that makes my sign-off worth something to your client also means I report what I find. Where the work is not right, that is what the record will say. You will hear it from me first.
That suits firms confident in their work who want it evidenced by someone the client's team will believe. A firm after a surveyor who will confirm whatever is convenient should look elsewhere.
Fees
I quote engagements individually: by inspection, by project or on a retained basis for firms that want surveying capacity on call. Use the form below with a little about the work and I'll come back with a fee indication.