Cladding Survey

A cladding survey is a focused inspection of a building's external cladding system. It assesses the condition of cladding panels, their fixings and support structure, the sealants and joints between panels, and the condition of the substrate or backing wall. The output is a record of the cladding system's current state, any defects identified, and recommendations for remediation or further investigation.

Cladding surveys gained heightened prominence following the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, which drew attention to the fire performance of cladding materials — particularly aluminium composite material (ACM) and high-pressure laminate (HPL) cladding panels with combustible cores. The subsequent Building Safety Act 2022 and the associated remediation programme created a significant demand for cladding surveys on multi-storey residential buildings, focusing on the identification of unsafe cladding materials and non-compliant fire barriers.

Beyond fire safety, cladding surveys address the full range of weathertightness and structural integrity concerns relevant to external envelope systems. These include: panel delamination (separation of the outer face from the core or substrate), fixing failure or corrosion (particularly in older systems with inadequate fixings or incompatible materials), sealant deterioration and joint failure (leading to water ingress), thermal movement damage (particularly in large-format panels with inadequate provision for movement), and impact damage.

The inspection methodology varies with the type of cladding, building height, and access available. Low-rise buildings may be inspectable from ground level and ladder. High-rise buildings require rope access, cradles, or drone photography for close-up inspection. Specific investigation methods include visual inspection, pull testing of fixings, probe sampling of panel cores, sealant inspection, and hammer sounding of tile and panel surfaces.

For documentation, cladding surveys benefit particularly from elevation-based spatial indexing — marking each defect on a building elevation drawing rather than a floor plan, allowing the distribution of panel failures, joint failures, and fixing defects across the full external envelope to be communicated clearly.