About Durie Heritage
Durie Heritage Building Surveyors, we survey buildings!
We, John Durie and Alison Durie, both have 1st class honours degrees in building surveying, and we both also have Master’s degress so we know what we are talking about.
We survey every type and size of building, from tenement flats to country houses, castles and windmills but we specialise in the old, damp, unloved ones that are generally given such bad press mainly because of bad advice from builders and other surveyors.
We love old buildings, we love everything about them for their undulating slated roofs, leaking gutters, rotting windows and delaminating stone as well as for their damp interiors. We love all of that because they are all repairable, and the retention of as much original material retains character as well as saves money.
We will explain how your house was supposed to function, the materials it was built with, and what has gone wrong since.
Most importantly, we explain how to make them wonderful places in which to live again – and make them dry!
We are also licenced drone operators, allowing us to provide detailed, high-quality images of otherwise difficult-to-access areas such as roofs and parapets.
Why do we love them so much?
Because we can provide you with the knowledge that will allow you to make them dry, comfortable, efficient and wonderful places to live in.
How do we do that?
We understand old buildings. We understand the materials, the methods of construction, the way they were designed to work, the common defects (and very unusual ones) and can identify what has gone wrong, when it has gone wrong and why it has gone wrong but, more importantly, and not generally provided in other building surveys, especially not in RICS building survey reports – how to remedy these defects – for good.
What makes us different?
Alison_Durie_inspecting_stonework_at_the_Tower_of_London
Building surveyors generally carry out surveys wearing suits and polished shoes. This is necessary when working in a commercial office but is limiting when you are faced with a dirty roof space to crawl through or wet subfloor to crawl into. What do they do then? They generally state that the areas were unable to be accessed for some reason so a ‘head and shoulders’ inspection was done from any hatches. RICS guidelines suggests surveyors shouldn’t even open hatches!
We turn up wearing cargo trousers, boots, t-shirts and with head torches, primed and ready to climb into those dirty, damp spaces in your attic or below your floor so we can use all our senses to see and smell and touch the building, test it, measure it, examine it, photograph it and provide the most comprehensive information possible.
We spend time with owners. People absorb information in different ways. Sometimes a typed report is enough, sometimes helped by photographs, but nothing beats walking around the property with you, the owner, explaining issues and answering questions.
Our written reports are detailed but not overly technical and, where technical details are necessary or uncommon terms are unavoidable, these are fully explained. It is a learning process and the information gained from the report are not just useful for the property in question, it can be applied to future properties or used to guide future maintenance.
We also offer on-going support after the report has been produced, whether by email or phone, and clients are actively encouraged to remain in touch.
What should you do now?
Give us a call or send an email to ask about a survey or discuss an issue you are having. Sometimes advice over the phone is sufficient and solves the issue however advice is limited and general as we won’t see what you see from our desk!
07944 611844
john@durieheritage.co.uk
About John Durie
John Durie completed an MSc in the Conservation of Historic Buildings at the University of Bath achieving a merit with his dissertation entitled ‘Breaking Through the Conservation Barrier’ which examines the problems owners of ‘old houses’ have in obtaining the correct advice. If you have found this website, you are on the way to finding the answers to your building’s problems.
John also has a first-class honours degree in building surveying being only one of 35 students in his year at Glasgow Caledonian University to have any interest in ‘old’ buildings despite almost 40% of our housing stock containing ‘traditional’ materials like lime mortar and plaster. What that means is that very few building surveying companies have the necessary experience or knowledge to correctly advise you about defects affecting your home.
As well as having worked for national and international building surveying practices, John has been a building surveyor with the National Trust for Scotland and has worked on repairs and maintenance projects in buildings of national importance such as castles, country homes, farm houses and rural cottages. He also completed a multi-million-pound conservation project funded by Historic Scotland where he gained valuable knowledge.
John saw a significant absence of appropriate information being available to home owners where valuation surveyors guided them towards damp proofing salesmen and other building surveyors left them with a report full of defects for them to then figure out who to turn to. John provides a full explanation of these issues, noting symptoms, identifying the corresponding defects and, finally, providing you with the correct information on how to finally remedy these problems including the appropriate materials to use and, where necessary, can also research the most appropriate contractor in your area.
About Alison Durie
Alison Durie has spent many years in local authority housing and homelessness incuding ordering and specifying repairs, latterly at senior management level in charity organisations. Having experienced the generally poor quality workmanship and the lack of knowledge of those supposed to be the go-to professionals, she decided to re-train in building surveying.
Alison obtained a first class honours degree in building surveying from University of Wales Trinity St David (UWTSD) then completed her Masters degree at Cardiff University studying Urban and Regional Development, obtaining a merit.
She now works together with John and both carry out surveys and compile and check reports. For some reason, Alison loves drainage… although some of the manholes we open sometimes provide challenging views.
Alison loves old buildings and has plastered, rendered, pointed and limewashed several house in Scotland, England, Wales and in France. She is a proponent of repair, resuse, recycle and repurpose and loves upcycling.
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