If you plan to do building works that may affect a party or structure (a ceiling for instance) between you and a neighbour then the provisions of the Party Wall act may apply.

Double hung timber sash windows look great on older or period homes but they can be draughty and offer poor thermal performance, assuming you want to keep them and not replace them with modern double glazed units[we wouldn’t unless they look the part!] then there are a number of things [...]

For quite a while we have provided free Party Wall Notice Templates at our sister site partywallsurveyors.co.uk, these are now available on our main Collier Stevens site.

So just before Christmas we carried out at building survey on a small, late nineteenth century terraced house on the Kent coast, it needed some work as it had been lived in by an elderly occupant.  There was an extension that appeared to have been constructed in the 1950s and [...]

The RICS are consulting for new Information Paper which aims to help valuers and consider the implications of Japanese Knotweed – an invasive plant feared for its damaging effects and ability to grow through masonry, concrete and we suspect kryptonite.

Quite often what appears to be an easy way to make a room bigger in an older house is to think about removing the chimney breast – at first thought it seems easy, knock it out with a sledgehammer, bag up and remove the rubble, plaster up, decorate and hey [...]

“MP condemns Basement Conversions” a short article about a debate in the commons last week moaning about basement conversions and developments, looked a bit insubstantial and despite their statements to the contrary a little nimby and a little bit xenophobic to us!!  Here’s MP Karen Bucks comments and here Mark [...]

We posted recently about a pre purchase building survey we carried out in a building at Dungeness,  that post caught the eye or Google search of another prospective purchaser and we have recently been back on Dungeness Estate  [map of the estate here] surveying again.  What seems to be a [...]

When was the last time you checked your garden walls or if you are buying had a look to see what the walls are like?  The repair and replacement of brick and masonry garden walls can be considerable – the most recent wall reconstruction that we managed  on behalf of [...]

Collier Stevens, Chartered Surveyors were appointed by Hythe Town Council to design and oversee the reinstatement of footpaths to the Oaklands public open space in Hythe, Kent.