Surveyors Insights

AI CIM Q&A

SEO CIM Q&A

This audio provides an independent, professional summary of the RICS global standard on the responsible use of artificial intelligence in surveying practice, with a specific focus on residential surveyors and valuers.It explains how AI may be used to support activities such as data analysis, comparable selection, and report preparation, while reinforcing that professional judgement, accountability, and ethical responsibility always remain with the surveyor.The recording highlights key principles including governance, transparency, data quality, professional scepticism, and client communication, and explains what the standard means in practice ahead of its mandatory implementation from March 2026.This content is intended for educational and professional development purposes and is not an official RICS publication.

Building Regulations Part B focuses on fire safety and the protection of life. This episode explains how the regulations aim to prevent fire spread, ensure safe escape routes, support firefighting operations, and reduce risks through building design and materials. We explore the key concepts of fire resistance, compartmentation, means of escape, and warning systems, helping listeners understand how Part B applies in real buildings.

Building Regulations Part A sets out the requirements that ensure buildings are structurally safe and stable. In this episode, we break down the key principles behind structural integrity, load-bearing elements, foundations, and how buildings are designed to safely resist forces such as weight, wind, and movement. This podcast explains Part A in clear, practical terms, making it easier to understand how compliance protects both buildings and occupants.

Building movement is rarely about the bricks; it’s about the earth they sit on. Settlement & Stress is a forensic podcast dedicated to the physics of foundations. We analyze the "Perfect Storms"—where 19th-century masonry meets 21st-century environmental shifts. We deconstruct Jurin’s Law, Clay Desiccation, and the "Wicking Effect" of lime mortar in moving structures. If you’re a professional in the ECO4 or Retrofit sector, this is your audio field guide to understanding how foundations breathe, bend, and—occasionally—break.

Building movement is rarely about the bricks; it’s about the earth they sit on. Settlement & Stress is a forensic podcast dedicated to the physics of foundations. We analyze the "Perfect Storms"—where 19th-century masonry meets 21st-century environmental shifts. We deconstruct Jurin’s Law, Clay Desiccation, and the "Wicking Effect" of lime mortar in moving structures. If you’re a professional in the ECO4 or Retrofit sector, this is your audio field guide to understanding how foundations breathe, bend, and—occasionally—break.

Question & Answer on various

This episode examines movement in buildings from a building pathology perspective, helping UK RICS students and surveyors understand why structures move and how that movement presents on inspection. It explores ground-related movement, material and thermal movement, and structural behaviour, with detailed discussion on cracking patterns, secondary symptoms, and how to distinguish historic movement from active or progressive failure. The focus is on diagnosis rather than alarm, using observation, context, and proportional investigation to form defensible conclusions and report movement in line with RICS and BRE guidance.

This episode provides a comprehensive guide to insects that affect buildings in the UK, with a focus on those that damage timber and associated building elements. Aimed at RICS students and surveyors, it explains how to identify common timber-destroying insects, distinguish active infestations from historic attack, recognise visual and secondary symptoms, and assess the level of risk to structural integrity. The episode also covers life cycles, environmental conditions that encourage infestation, when treatment is necessary, when it is not, and how to report findings proportionately in line with RICS guidance and professional best practice.

This episode explores brickwork as a structural and environmental system, focusing on how and why masonry deteriorates over time. Aimed at UK RICS students and surveyors, it examines common brickwork defects including cracking, spalling, efflorescence, sulphate attack, mortar incompatibility, wall tie failure, and moisture-related decay. The episode teaches how to read brickwork on site, distinguish symptoms from causes, assess severity, and report defects proportionately in line with UK standards and best practice.

In this episode, we lay the foundations of building pathology for UK surveyors and students. We explore how buildings fail, why visible defects are rarely the real problem, and how to follow evidence from symptoms back to root causes. The discussion covers moisture as the primary enabler of decay, movement mechanisms, material behaviour, structural load paths, and the critical skill of distinguishing historic defects from active issues. Emphasis is placed on observation, pattern recognition, proportional investigation, and reporting in line with RICS and BRE guidance. This episode is designed to build diagnostic thinking and professional judgement essential for surveying practice.

Episode 4 explores the core principles of building pathology from a UK surveying perspective. Aimed at RICS students and practising surveyors, this episode focuses on how buildings behave as dynamic systems, how defects develop over time, and how to interpret visible symptoms to identify underlying mechanisms. The discussion covers moisture, movement, material behaviour, structural load paths, and the importance of following evidence back to source, with emphasis on professional judgement, proportionate risk assessment, and RICS-compliant reporting.

In this episode, we explore movement in buildings from a UK building pathology and RICS surveying perspective. Designed for student and practising surveyors, the episode examines why buildings move, how different movement mechanisms present on inspection, and how to distinguish normal, historic movement from progressive structural concern. Topics include thermal movement, settlement, subsidence, heave, material behaviour, and crack analysis, with a strong focus on evidence-led diagnosis, recognised benchmarks, and proportionate reporting in line with RICS guidance.

n this episode, we take a deep dive into structural loads and load paths from a UK surveying perspective. Aimed at RICS students and practising surveyors, the episode explains how buildings transfer dead, live, wind, and roof loads through structural elements to the ground, and what happens when those load paths are altered by decay, movement, overloading, or alteration. The discussion focuses on recognising symptoms of load path failure on site, understanding serviceability versus structural risk, and applying proportionate, RICS-compliant advice in survey reports.

In this episode, we take a detailed look at insect attack in residential buildings from a UK surveying perspective. Aimed at RICS students and practising surveyors, the discussion covers the most common timber-damaging insects found in UK properties, how to identify them on site, how to distinguish historic infestation from active attack, and when insect damage becomes a genuine structural concern. The episode focuses on evidence-based diagnosis, moisture as the underlying driver, and how to give proportionate, defensible advice in line with professional standards.

This episode examines the principal mechanisms responsible for stone decay in traditional buildings, including salt crystallisation, delamination, granular disintegration, chemical weathering, and biological growth. Emphasis is placed on the role of moisture, stone orientation, and inappropriate repair methods, with practical guidance for surveyors on inspection, diagnosis, and reporting within the limits of a non-intrusive survey.

Brickwork is one of the most widely used construction materials in the UK, yet it is also one of the most frequently misunderstood during surveys.

Thermal movement is one of the most common but frequently misinterpreted causes of cracking inbuildings. Because it can visually resemble structural movement, subsidence, or material failure, thesurveyor must rely on pattern recognition, context, and process of elimination to diagnose itcorrectly.

This episode explores building movement from a building pathology perspective, aimed at UK surveyors and student surveyors. It explains why movement occurs in buildings, how to distinguish between normal and problematic movement, and how to identify the underlying mechanisms during inspection.The talk covers ground-related movement such as subsidence, heave, settlement, and landslip, explaining their causes, typical crack patterns, and associated symptoms. It then examines material-related movement including thermal expansion, moisture movement, creep, and material decay, highlighting how everyday building materials respond over time.Structural and mechanical movement is also addressed, including roof spread, floor deflection, lateral wall movement, wall tie failure, and sway. Practical guidance is given on interpreting crack patterns, locations, and widths, and how secondary symptoms such as sticking doors and sloping floors support diagnosis.The episode focuses on pattern recognition, context, and professional judgement, helping surveyors assess risk accurately and provide proportionate, confident advice to clients.