Crack & Structural Defect Investigation
From £595 — The Visit Is Included
A Chartered Structural Engineer attends your property, inspects the defect, and gives you a written opinion on its cause. CEng MIStructE — Engineering Safety First.
What Makes This Different
The Price Includes the Visit
There is no call-out charge and no separate attendance fee. The Tier 1, 2 and 3 attendance fees do not stack on top of these prices. One fixed number, agreed before we start.
Searches Are Included
Mining Remediation Authority coal-mining legacy search, British Geological Survey records, and Building Control and FENSA/CERTASS register checks. In a former coalfield district these are not an administrative footnote.
We Attend. Most Do Not.
Nearly every comparable published price comes from a national, remote-first firm — one states outright that most of its jobs need no site visit. A Chartered Engineer standing in the room with a level is the product.
Investigation Fee Bands
Single Defect
£595
One defect at one location — a single crack, one bowed wall, one lintel, or one item flagged by a surveyor. Focused inspection, an opinion on cause, and a plain-English report.
A homeowner's survey has flagged one item, and you need to know what it means.
Multi-Location
£845
Several locations, across more than one room or across both internal and external walls. Half a day on site: floor levels across the whole footprint, roof space, all elevations, crack gauging, moisture readings, and a measured plan sketch.
Cracking has appeared in more than one place and you want it looked at as one problem.
Whole Property or Complex
£1,150
Whole-property investigation, including drainage and vegetation assessment, concealed or previously altered zones needing opening-up coordination, and properties of two or more storeys. A full day on site.
Widespread or long-running movement where the whole building has to be read together.
Contested, or Relied On By An Insurer
Individual quote
Where your insurer will rely on the opinion, or where causation is contested between parties. Higher evidential standard and higher exposure. Scope and fee are agreed in writing before any work begins. Not available where the report is wanted by or for a lender — that is a different professional's work, and I will say so rather than take it on.
An insurance claim your insurer is disputing, or a disagreement with a builder or installer about what caused the damage.
All prices are final — no VAT is added. Every band above includes the site attendance; nothing from the Site Attendance schedule is added on top. The travel policy on that page still applies to properties more than 10 road miles from HD8.
What You Receive
- Attendance by a Chartered Structural Engineer (CEng MIStructE)
- A verbal summary before we leave site
- A written, plain-English opinion on the cause
- Report issued within 5 working days of the visit
- Coal-mining legacy, BGS, Building Control and FENSA/CERTASS searches
- Dated, annotated photographs and recorded crack gauge positions
An Honest Answer May Be 'We Need to Watch It'
Movement is diagnosed over time, not in a single afternoon. A first inspection can honestly conclude that the only responsible next step is a period of monitoring. That is not a way of selling you more work — it is why the monitoring prices below are published up front, so the cost is never sprung on you afterwards.
Crack & Movement Monitoring
Monitoring establishes whether movement is active or historic. Three to twelve months is the normal range, and a suspected-movement case typically needs a full year. A baseline is best set in the driest part of the year, so the readings that follow are compared against ground at its most shrunken.
Components
Set-Up
£0 / £250
Monitors installed, baseline reading taken, positions recorded and photographed. Gauges and materials included. Free of charge within a Defect Investigation visit; £250 if commissioned on its own.
Monitoring Attendance
£175
Per visit. Each reading is taken and recorded on site by the engineer.
Closing Report
£275
Plotted results across the full monitoring period, a conclusion on whether movement is active, and a recommendation. Issued within 5 working days of the final reading.
Monitoring Schemes
6 Months
£625
Baseline + 2 reads + closing report
12 Months
£800
Baseline + 3 reads + closing report
12 Months, Full Seasonal
£975
Baseline + 4 reads + closing report
Each scheme totals exactly its pay-as-you-go build-up — £625 is 2 × £175 plus £275, and so on. Set-up is free of charge where monitoring follows a Defect Investigation visit.
Readings Are Taken by the Engineer, Not by You
Some monitoring schemes are cheaper because the homeowner is asked to take the readings. Insurers and engineers do not accept self-recorded readings, so that data is worthless at exactly the moment it matters — when a claim or a dispute turns on it.
Every reading in the schemes above is taken and recorded on site by the engineer who will write the closing report.
What the Fee Does Not Include
- Automated or remote sensor monitoring — individual quote
- Party Wall etc. Act 1996 monitoring — individual quote
- Level-datum monitoring using a precise levelling station — individual quote
- Opening-up works, scaffolding, access equipment, and making good
- Drain surveys by CCTV, trial pits, and soil or laboratory testing
- Remedial design or a schedule of repair works, which is quoted separately once the cause is known
- Building Control application and inspection fees
- Travel beyond 10 road miles of HD8, charged under the Site Attendance travel policy
Is This the Same as a Structural Engineer Report?
No. A Structural Engineer Report (from £450) is a desk-based written opinion on a single concern, produced from your drawings and photographs — most often for a home insurance claim, or for your own decisions about the building. It is not written for a mortgage lender. Nobody attends the property.
A Defect Investigation is a site inspection. If the question is "what is causing this crack?", it cannot be answered honestly from photographs, and the desk-based report is the wrong product. The Tier 1 credit that applies to the desk-based report does not apply here, because the visit is already inside the price.
Worried About a Crack?
Send photographs, the property address, and where you have seen movement. We will confirm the band and a fixed fee before anyone attends.
Request a Fixed Quote