The Importance Of Site Inspections

Today, I've returned from a property where the home owner has for several years entered lengthy debate with an Architect, Builder, Engineer and Surveyor regarding the ingress of water into her property.

I cannot go into specifics but wanted to state that the professionals and the builder all attempted to prevent water from entering the cavity of the house and thus eliminating the potential for the water ingress above her window specifically.

We on the other hand confirmed that the root of the problem was poor water proofing detailing above the window lintel and that regardless of trying to stop water entering the cavity that the priority needed to be to repair the defective detailing above the window thereby eliminating any chance of ingress should water still make it into the cavity.

Now you would think that is common sense but unfortunately there are many professionals out there who think that they know what they are doing 'because they've done it that way for the last 25 years!' whereas infact a good and professional architect who is working with everchanging planning policies and warrant regulations is at the 'coal face' and can very quickly guide all of the design team and contractor on the correct way to do things, particularly where changes occur in what is commonly understood to be 'best practice'.

I will leave you with a thought. If you were doing a self build and spending approx £150,000 - £200,000 please make sure your architect has the construction knowledge, detailing experience and ability to properly inspect a project on site. I know we do...

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