What is a building surveyor, and what exactly do they do? Here, we explore the role, and how to become a building surveyor.
Building surveyors are responsible for assessing the quality of buildings, from houses to public and commercial properties. They examine the condition of buildings and advise on ways to improve them.
However, that’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to a building surveyor’s responsibilities.
In reality, they are a crucial member of the building team, advising architects and builders on maintenance procedures, keeping safety standards high, advising on tenders and contractors, and more.
If you’re considering a career as a building surveyor, you’ll need to understand the various aspects of the position and the significance of the work you’re about to undertake.
What Building Surveyors Do
Throughout your building surveyor career, you may need to wear that hat of:
A safety analyst - one of the building surveyor’s most important roles is making sure that a building is safe. You’ll carry out structural and internal inspections to make sure all elements of a building live up to safety requirements, including plumbing and electrical work.
A quality controller - you’ll ensure that buildings are suitable for human habitation. This is an incredibly important job, helping to lift the world’s housing standards out of poverty and make everybody’s living environments acceptable.
An energy specialist - it’s the job of a surveyor to make sure that a building conforms to energy standards regulation. More than this, though, you can make sure that buildings are as energy efficient as possible, helping to protect the planet and people’s wallets.
A project manager - as an experienced professional in the housing business, people will turn to you to help them organise building or maintenance processes. That’s when you’ll be able to show off your project management skills, ensuring that your clients’ projects come in on time and under budget.
An administrator - there are a lot of housing administrators out there who will need the opinion of an expert. You may be called in to help with planning permission applications, demolition licenses and maintenance agreements. You’ll also need to make sure that the paperwork for your own surveyed properties is in order, too.
A historian - it’s not just houses and commercial properties that need surveying, but cathedrals, heritage buildings and museums too. As a building surveyor, you could be an active part of keeping our history alive.
As a building surveyor, you’re a part of one of the nation’s most critical functions - ensuring that a high standard of life and living is available to everybody. You will have an impact on lives every day of your working life.
Find a meaningful career - how to become a building surveyor
If that’s something you feel you’d like to achieve, one of the quickest ways to become a building surveyor with chartered status is with a Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) accredited building surveying degree.
Our MSc in Building Surveying will give you the necessary first level, professional qualification in just two years of part time study, completely online. RICS accreditation can also help you earn 20% more than your non-accredited counterparts.
Click here to learn more about our Building Surveying Masters or below to discover more about our other specialist RICS accredited degrees:
Surveying (Real Estate) MSc
Surveying (Quantity Surveying) MSc
This blog was adapted from Northumbria University (2021) What Does A Building Surveyor Do?
Comments