This practical book offers a well structured guide to inspecting and reporting on the condition of older buildings, and takes into consideration the traditional materials and techniques used in their construction. Part I summarizes the basics of surveying practice, including the inspection, assessment, defect diagnosis and monitoring of defects. Part II examines the building elements, discussing the form of construction and their symptoms and diagnosis. This section provides specific advice on assessing industrial monuments and standing ruins, and features concise inspection checklists for ease of reference.

This bestselling book has been fully revised and updated to include valuable new case studies and examples which help to demonstrate the common problems found in older buildings. It features many additional photographs illustrating the decay mechanims and individual issues associated with damp, timber decay, masonry defects, roofing problems and many other aspects. The book begins by summarizing the basics of surveying practice, including the inspection, assessment, defect diagnosis and monitoring of defects. It then examines the building elements, discussing their construction, typical faults and their diagnoses. This section provides specific advice on assessing industrial monuments and features concise inspection checklists for ease of reference. In the final section, the author looks to the future, considering the specific challenges faced by property professionals when employed to survey historic buildings. The book is accompanied by comprehensive appendices, including sample survey forms, and a list of useful contacts is followed by an extensive bibliography. This book will be of particular interest to conservation officers, surveyors, architects, archaeologists and planners.

Now in its second edition, this book provides a practical guide to measured building surveys with special emphasis on recording the fabric of historic buildings. It includes two new chapters dealing with modern survey practice using instruments and photographic techniques, as well as a chapter examining recording methods as used on a specific project case study undertaken by the Museum of London Archaeology Service. Measured surveys for producing accurate scaled drawings of buildings and their immediate surroundings may be undertaken for a variety of reasons. The principal ones are to provide a historic record, and to form the base drawings upon which a proposed programme of works involving repairs, alterations, adaptations or extensions can be prepared. This book provides a practical guide to preparing measured surveys of historic buildings, with special emphasis on recording the fabric. The text assumes little previous knowledge of surveying and begins by describing basic measuring techniques before introducing elementary surveying and levelling. From these principles, the practices and techniques used to measure and record existing buildings are developed in a detailed step-by-step approach, covering sketching, measuring, plotting and drawing presentation. For this new edition the text on hand survey methods has been revised to note where new techniques and equipment can be incorporated, as well as explaining where more advanced survey methods may be best used to advantage. Information on locating early maps and plans, aerial photography and its uses, documentary research, procurement of surveys and conventional photography has been incorporated at various points as appropriate. In addition, Ross Dallas provides two new chapters dealing with modern survey practice using instruments and photographic techniques. Also, the opportunity has been taken to present a wider view of building recording projects by including a new chapter from the Museum of London Archaeological Service (MoLAS) building recording team. It encompasses their five key principles for recording within an illustrative case study.

A record of the papers presented, and the ensuing debate, at a symposium on the recording of historic buildings, hosted jointly by the RCMHE and the Society of Architectural Historians in May 1991.