Building surveys are a staple of the construction industry due to their massive widespread use. They can be used in a variety of situations to assess the soundness of a building.
Building surveys can cover a variety of elements in a building, such as the effectiveness of the insulation, through a heat-loss survey, to a leak survey, which will determine if the roof or flooring has a leak which water can pass through. A number of different technologies are provided to perform these functions, such as an infra-red imaging camera to check if there is heat-loss, or an electrical capacitance test to determine if their are any pinhole gaps in a roof.
Using building surveys to determine the value and quality of a building is important in a number of situations. It can be used to check the work of any building contractors immediately following them finishing work, and it can also be performed by a prospective buyer of a building who wants to check to see if the building is being overvalued.