01782 944945
Principal: Steve Butler MRICS Chartered Surveyor
Steve Butler Chartered Surveyors Marcus House, Park Hall Business Village, Park Hall Road, Newcastle under Lyme, ST3 5XAOpen 8.30am to 6.30pm
About Steve Butler RICS Surveyors
Steve Butler is an independent Newcastle under Lyme surveyor with over thirty years experience of surveying in the Newcastle under Lyme and Staffordshire area. Steve Butler has worked in Staffordshire and Newcastle under Lyme for over thirty years and is thus very familiar with the area. Our surveyors undertake surveys and valuations of residential property and houses in Newcastle under Lyme for all kinds of purposes. We are interested in pre-puchase Level 2 Homebuyers, Level 3 Building Surveys, Help to Buy Valuations and valuations for matrimonial, insolvency and taxation purposes. Our surveyors aim to try and provide a rapid respone but with a high level of service based on our expert knowledge of Newcastle under Lyme, impartial advice and to be seen as entirely trustworthy.
The main advantages of dealing with our surveyors are :
PERSONAL ATTENTION: We only have a limited number of clients to ensure that the level of service is maintained. Telephone calls from clients or potential clients are always welcome.
PROFESSIONALISM: Our surveyors are members of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) who ensure the practice complies with exacting standards. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors require that our surveyors keep up to date with property matters, maintain audited clients accounts, professional indemnity insurance and a formal complaints procedure.
ACCESS: Property matters can be very worrying. You can invariably telephone one of our surveyors between 8.00 am and 6.00 pm seven days per week. If you have a problem or don't understand something please feel free to call.
RAPID RESPONSE: Our surveyors can invariably visit you same day or next day, at the office or home.
Newcastle under Lyme chartered surveyors homebuyers report on a 1935 semi detached house
Our Stoke surveyors found frost damaged bricks blocked vents and poor insulation that was likely encourage condensation, substandard electrics, a dangerous glass door, potenially dmp quarry tile floors, old ceilings that were at risk of collapse, missing firebreak walls and missing roof linings.
Steve Butler qualified as an RICS Chartered Surveyor in 1992 and has also passed the Government's Home Inspector Examinations and is a qualified commercial energy surveyor and associate member of the Chartered Institution of Legal Executives. Steve Butler Chartered Surveyors are regulated by the RICS and have to follow their rules of conduct. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is the leading property profession and requires high standards of integrity and responsibility of its members. Steve Butler Chartered Surveyors are entirely independent of any estate agents lenders or mortgage brokers and not not pay introductory fees ensuring our independence. Most importantly we only act with the clients interest in mind.Our valuations and survey reports are subject to audit by the RICS.
RICS Chartered Surveyors Homebuyers Report on a 1960 dormer bungalow
Our surveyors found included frost damaged bricks, ponding on a garage roof, unsightly spay foam repairs, uninsulated roof voids and a dangerous loft hatch.
Our house and residential property surveyors undertake Level 3 building and structural surveys and Level 2 Hombuyers Surveys on all types of houses and residential property in Newcastle under Lyme and Staffordhsire. If you are you buying a property in Newcastle under Lyme then a pre-purchase Building or Homebuyers Survey may help avoid future expenses. We specialise in surveying and valuing residential property in Newcastle under Lyme for all kinds of purposes including Help to Buy, housing association shared ownership sales, matrimonial matters, probate and insolvency and bankruptcy.
An RICS Building Survey will tell you about the condition of the property including the state of the chimneys, roofs, rainwater goods, roof edges, walls, floors, ceilings, partitions, windows and doors. We can tell you whether there is any structural movement or settlement, wet rot, dry rot, woodworm or damp problems. We give you an overview of the services such as the electrical installations, boiler, central heating, hot and cold water.
Newcastle under Lyme Surveyors RICS Building Survey Report on a 1925 Detached House
Newcastle under Lyme RICS property surveyors report on a 1925 detached house. The chimneys were in poor condition, tiles were slipping, gutters were clogged and broken. The roof face had dished. Additional timbers had been added to strengthen the roof. The property had long standing movement at the head of an opening to a rear bay window. A timber floor had humped slightly.
RICS Building Surveys provides a more detailed picture of a property’s construction and can be carried out on practically all residential properties.
The report is bespoke and tailored to your requests.
It is most suitable when the building is less conventional. This could be because it is very old, it has been built using unusual construction methods, or it is dilapidated. Similarly, it can be very informative if a building has been extensively altered.
An RICS Building Survey will tell you about the condition of the property including the state of the chimneys, roofs, rainwater goods, roof edges, walls, floors, ceilings, partitions, windows and doors. We can tell you whether there is any structural movement or settlement, wet rot, dry rot, woodworm or damp problems. We give you an overview of the services such as the electrical installations, boiler, central heating, hot and cold water.
RICS Building Surveyors Report on a leaning gable end.
Measurement with a spirt level by our surveyors suggested that the top fifteen course of bricks are out of plumb by 150mm from above the point at which two purlins bear into the gable wall. The top ten course of the wall are built with a single skin of bricks and are likely to be unstable. The the likely cause of the leaning wall is failure to ties it into the structure at the time of construction.
Our surveyors suggested that the top fifteen courses of brickwork should be rebuilt with a 225mm wall that is inherently more stable. Straps set into the centre of the wall can be secured to the roof structure. The straps can be secured to the existing longitudinal timbers and to planks screwed across and perpendicular to the rafters just below each side of the apex. 18mm x 120mm x 2.4m floor boards or similar would suffice.
Sadly in this instance the purchaser had relied on a mortgage valuation for the purchase of the late 1920's house which is thus about ninety years old. The surveyor thus had no duty to report the leaning wall to the purchaser as he was only worried about his mortgage lender. The purchaser will now have to stand the cost of about £250.00 of labour and about £750.00 of scaffold if the wall is to be properly repaired by rebuilding it. A homebuyers survey by Steve Butler Chartered Surveyors Newcastle under Lyme would have cost about £400.00.
A standardized report produced by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) to highlight significant problems and matters requiring urgent investigation.
It is designed to flag up major defects and problems that need urgent or significant attention, because such issues will affect the property’s value.
It is the cost effective choice for the majority of property purchasers.
A valuation of the property and estimation of reinstatement cost for insurance purposes is included as standard in both our Building Survey and Homebuyers Survey reports.
Due to the time taken to measure the property Building Surveys cost considerably more than the Homebuyers Report, however you should bear in mind that they are unlikely to find any serious defects to the property that the Homebuyers Survey and Report will not.
It is considered that the Homebuyers Survey and Report will be suitable for most clients.
Homebuyers Survey of a 1910 Crewe Semi detached house by our independent property surveyors
Our Crewe Surveyors found structural movement above a soldier arch, a long standing leak, frost eroded bricks and pointing and an insecure ceiling whilst preparing an RICS Homebuyer Report and Survey.
Our surveyors can help property owners in Newcastle under Lyme with Boundary and Right of Way Surveys. Steve Butler has extensive experience of writing reports in to such matters including preparing CPR35 complaint reports for court and acting as an expert witness. Steve Butler membership of the Chartered Institution of Legal Executives is a particular advantage when drafting report for the Court and understanding pre-trial procedure. Steve Butler have a very accurate Total Station laser measure which can produce drawings in three dimensions and is particuarly useful for measuring the track and meanders of boundaries in relation to other objects. Plans can often by laid over original conveyance documents using CAD software for comparison purposes.
Newcastle under Lyme right of way and boundary dispute report
The claimant wanted to argue she had a right of way with a vehicle from a public car park through a splay that was persistently blocked by the land owner first with a car that was subsequently burnt out and then with bollards. Unfortunately, the judge found she had been using the splay for just short of the twenty years required for a right of way by prescription, she did not have a right of way by conveyance and that she had not acquired the right of way under Section 62 of the LPA 1925. It was found under cross examination that access to the splay had been blocked by a wall which was demolished less than twenty years ago and that an alternative access had existed at the time which had subsequently become blocked and then re-opened.
HOUSING DISREPAIR SURVEYORS FOR HOUSING DISREPAIR CLAIMS UNDER THE LANDLORD AND TENANT ACT AND AND HHSRS
Our Housing Disrepair surveyors defend all of the claims against a local authoirty near to Newcastle under Lyme from their tenants. We are frequently able to throw out the claims made on behalf of tenants by cynical solicitors and surveyors, and on the few occasions of serious disepair ensure that our client can take early action to avert a serious claim and payment of compensation.
Surveyors Housing disrepair report prepared for the Newcastle under Lyme property's landlord.
A housing disrepair surveyors report revealed that this Newcastle under Lyme landlord was invited a claim for serious dierepair from his tenant by failing to carry out some fundamentally important and obvious works.
Steve Butler surveyors can help prepare schedules of condition prior to works on an adjoining property so that there is no argument as to wether the proposed works cause damage. Our surveyors can also draw up an agreement between the parties so that works are carried out in a manner that will reduce the risk of damage to an adjoining property and inconvenience to the neighbour.
Homebuyers survey of a 1960's property at Newcastle under Lyme
Crewe property surveyors homebuyers survey of 1960's detached property last refurbished in the 1980's. We found an old and inefficient boiler with single pipe central heating system, unsupported chimney breast, missing window lintels, old electrical fittings substandard fuse box without RCD protection and substandard earthing and an invasion of ants.
Defects noticed by our Newcastle under Lyme Surveyors whilst undertaking Homebuyers Reports Structural and Building Surveys in Newcastle under Lyme and Newcastle under Lymeshire
Wet rot growing on damp timbers in a cellar. Our RICS surveyors considered that the damp was entirely due to condensation. Beetles and very destructive dry rot also like damp timbers in unventilated spaces. The correct ventilation of cellars and the underside of suspended timber floors is very important. Common errors our surveyors see are coal drops into cellars that have been filled in, under floor vents sealed in the mistaken belief that it will reduce draughts in the property or in order to keep out harmless bees and wasps. Under floor vents are often blocked by constructing extensions or raising the ground level over them.
This cellar of a building particularly concerned or RICS Chartered Surveyors. The attractive looking fungus is dry rot. The potential problem is that it can travel many metres from a source of wet wood destroying dry wood. Remedial works are expensive as it is often necessary to access parts of the building to which access is not available without some dismantling. Timber ground floors and timbers in cellars are most commonly affected. Dry rot is usually triggered by a sudden increase in water such as a leaking pipe or rain water goods but can also occur due to condensation. One of its requirements apart from relative warmth is still air conditions. The chances of it occurring can thus be reduced by good under floor ventilation. In this case there was no ventilation to the cellar. Whist the cellar was subject to high humidity it was suspected that the dry rot outbreak had in fact been triggered by a water ingress into the property.
Modern wall constructed about 1980 which blew over in strong winds. Interesting points are the the wall has blown to the right but houses not seen on the photograph provide shelter from the left. The wall has blown away from the the piers that have been attached to help support it. This raises the question as to whether the wall would have blown down if the piers had been on the right of the wall. The wall has snapped immediately above the engineering brick damp proof course raising questions about whether mortar bonds well with engineering bricks, or given all the Victorian railway bridges that are still in first class condition whether modern cements bond well with engineering bricks. The Victorian railway bridges are boned with lime based mortars. Lime mortars are more flexible than modern cements and one thus wonders if a lime bonded wall could have flexed in the wind rather than snapping.
Our surveyors were impressed by this simple solution to prevent slates slipping on this house dating from about 1900. Small blocks have been stuck to the back of the slates so that they rest on the timber batterns. This should prevent the frequent problem in properties that are about 100 years old of slates slipping when the fixing nails corrode
Our surveyors noted this creature lurking in a doorway with a view to covert entry during an autumnal Homebuyers Survey. Other creatures that move into houses are bees, wasps, mice, rats and squirrels. Bees and wasps are not threat to either or people if left undisturbed. They are often in occupancy for some months until their numbers increase when their activity becomes noticed. Wasps nest only last a season and bees two or three years. Mice and rats are disease spreaders and rats and squirrels can do extensive damage from gnawing.
Salts seen on the chimney breast of a 1930's property by our surveyors whilst preparing a RICS Homebueyers survey. This can be indicative that the interior is in poor condition having been eaten away by corrosive flue condensates. In extreme cases the bricks deteriorate so much that it is posible to see into the chimney. Old chimneys should always be lined to with metal flues to contain fumes and prevent further attck of the brickwork.
Coins showing the gap between the glass and roof rail due to disortion of a conservatory seen by our surveyors when preparing an independent CPR 35 compliant expert witness report. The distortion was due to the walls on which the roof structrue sat not being level.