Careers: Building surveyor
Building Surveyor
What do building surveyors do?
Building surveyors are a key part of every construction project, no matter how small – or big - whether it’s someone’s loft extension or the London 2012 Olympics. They are usually involved at the very start of a project, and their opinion and advice will have a big effect on what happens and how it happens.
The role spans many different sectors and no one job will be the same. They can be involved in supervising multi-million pound office blocks, to restoring historic buildings, or working on home extensions.
Building surveyors provide professional advice on all aspects of property and construction, such as new-build and the aftercare and performance of existing buildings. They also inspect the quality of a property by identifying any problems that may affect the structure of the building, such as dry rot.
If a building surveyor finds a defect, they locate the cause, provide advice and solutions to prevent any further problems occurring. Building surveyors also work out re-building cost for insurance purposes.
A building surveyor’s tasks include:
- Advising clients on schemes and projects and determining requirements.
- Getting documents ready for tender and offering advice on appointing contractors, designers and procurement approaches.
- Making sure projects are finished on time and budget.
- Assessing the condition of existing buildings and identifying and analysing defects, including proposals for repair.
- Organising scheme designs with costings, programmes for completion of projects and specification of works.
Qualifications and training
To be a building surveyor, you need three good A-Level grades, or four Scottish Highers, to get onto an RICS -accredited surveying degree course.
Ideal subjects to have are Economics, Geography, IT, English, Physics, Languages, Art and Design.
After completing an RICS-accredited degree course and your first two years in practice as a surveyor, you can then pass your APC (Assessment of Professional Competence), that consists of a certain number of hours of continuous professional development, as well as a final interview exam.
Salary
Graduate building surveyors can expect to earn £18,000 to £25,000 depending on location. Newly qualified chartered building surveyors can expect to earn around £30,000 a year, progressing to a senior role within many companies.