RICS Level 3 Building Survey Lurgan

Our surveyors inspect accessible parts of the home from top to bottom, including the roof covering, chimneys, loft space, visible timbers, walls, floors, windows, doors and the areas around later additions. In Lurgan, that can matter on blackstone and yellow-brick town houses on High Street, where repointing, roof repairs and altered openings often sit behind later plaster. The report sets out construction, materials, defects and the condition of each visible element in plain language. It is written for buyers who need clear facts, not a tidy sales summary.

A Level 3 survey also explains what the defects mean. A slipped slate, a bowed wall, failed sealant at an extension or timber decay around a flat roof on a 1960s addition can point to near-term repair, higher maintenance or hidden movement. We do not open walls, lift carpets, carry out drainage CCTV or test gas, electrics and plumbing. Where a problem looks beyond the scope of a visual survey, our surveyors will flag the right specialist, often before you commit to a place near Kilmore Road or Victoria Street.

The value is in the repair advice. A buyer needs to know whether a crack is likely to be routine shrinkage or something that needs a structural engineer, whether a damp patch is local rainwater failure or a wider building issue, and whether a roof that looks tired can last another winter. On a larger house off Silverwood Road, or an older terrace closer to the town centre, those distinctions change the budget fast. Our reports rank urgency, so you know what to tackle first and what can wait.

• Roof coverings and chimneys
• Loft timbers and roof voids
• Walls, floors and ceilings
• Windows, doors and joinery
• Guttering, rainwater goods and visible services

Lurgan was founded in 1610 during the Ulster Plantation, then expanded through the linen industry in the 18th and 19th centuries. That history shows in the fabric: locally quarried blackstone, also known as basalt, with yellow brick dressings on some late-19th-century townhouses on High Street, plus earlier mud or stone walls under thatched or shingled roofs. Those materials age differently, and a survey needs to read the patchwork instead of treating the house as one standard build. Our surveyors look for the clues that tell one era of work from another.

Flood history matters here too. Lurgan was identified as an Area of Significant Flood Risk in 2011 and again in NIFRA 2018, with river routes running towards Lough Neagh and flood events recorded in August 2008, October 2011 and November 2014. That is why our surveyors pay close attention to lower ground floors, cellar walls, air bricks and any signs that doors or skirtings have taken on water. Properties around Drumnamoe, where flood cell five has been the focus of mitigation work, deserve a careful look at thresholds and external levels. Water marks are easy to miss if you only glance round the rooms.

The most common defects in this stock are the ones that older buyers already fear, and for good reason. Damp can show up where an old wall has been re-rendered, roof coverings can be near the end of life on 1930s and 1960s additions, timber decay can start in hidden lintels, and lath-and-plaster ceilings can crack after years of movement. On a place near the Belfast-to-Dublin railway line or one of the older streets feeding the town centre, our reports explain whether the issue is routine maintenance or a job that needs a structural engineer, a damp specialist or a roofer. That is the difference between a repair list and a real problem.

• Rising damp at ground level
• Slipped slates and ageing flat roofs
• Rotten joist ends and lintels
• Cracked plaster over older openings
• Drainage overflow near low thresholds