Virtual surveys can offer long-term benefits

Construction and real-estate technology continues to improve the way we work and the way professionals and contractors provide their services.

During the pandemic, virtual surveys have been increasingly popular. For instance, 3D imaging cameras have enabled surveyors and their clients to continue working through the restrictions of lockdown, overcoming limitations on travel and site access, and helping contractors and property managers maintain social distancing on site. But there are long-term benefits to the virtual survey, too, and a place for virtual technical due diligence (TDD) beyond the pandemic.

The technique offers a simple visual demonstration of the layout and, if necessary, is an effective way of measuring the property from your desk. It is not a substitute for a physical specialist survey of the building fabric or potential defects.

However, geomatics teams can combine 3D – point-cloud – measurement surveys and virtual surveys, enabling exact measurements to be taken from the virtual file. This is particularly beneficial to clients with a project team on board at technical due diligence (TDD) stage, which can then begin initial design work without physically visiting site.

The use of drone surveys is increasing on a similar premise, and the videos they take are shared with project teams and stakeholders so they can remotely monitor progress on construction projects, mitigating the risks associated with COVID-19. In reducing travel, virtual surveys have the added benefit of cutting associated carbon emissions.

The pace of information exchange and physical construction is accelerating, with an increasing liquidity and volume of transactions. Therefore, it stands to reason that clients need information that is more concise, easily understood, relevant and accessible.

The challenge with existing virtual survey technology is that its use merely as a gimmick could mean a client is inundated with too much information. Technology must instead enhance what we are doing: in TDD terms, it could if deployed correctly provide clients with visual aids that help them understand key issues better and more quickly.

The use and interpretation of any survey data is ultimately reliant on the skill and experience of the surveyor, and this is still very much the case with 3D information. For example, a photograph of a blocked gutter pinned internally to the ceiling of the virtual survey file is likely to be of no added value to the client.

However, links in a report to 3D data, for example showing the extent of defective fire-stopping can offer helpful visualisations. A picture paints a thousand words as they say, and providing better context for our commentary will no doubt improve the understanding and use of our reports by clients.

This is particularly true if coordination is required with a wider team, such as managing agents; this is often the case when addressing defects on larger commercial surveys for vendors. Equally, it can be used to share information with the purchaser’s managing agents as they familiarise themselves with a new property.

It is important to remember that a virtual survey is not necessarily the sole or even the main tool for good TDD reporting. Primarily, the focus must still be to inspect the property physically, reporting in a concise, commercially astute and technical way. Information is often best conveyed to the client and its solicitors in written and numerical form; that is, as costs and associated liability in a given timeframe.

Providing virtual surveys to clients is an increasingly simple process. The surveyor completes the imaging process as part of their usual physical survey or a geomatics team undertakes the 3D survey, often at the same time as measuring. The client then receives a link to the visualisation within a matter of days. The experience is similar to Google Street View: simple, flexible, informative and familiar.

It seems inconceivable that records for so significant an investment would be as poor in any other sector; buildings worth tens or even hundreds of millions of pounds can have inadequate, incomplete and even missing information on construction. This is particularly evident when it comes to base-build construction; although information relating to subsequent fit-out works and occupation is often better.

It appears that this is changing after the Hackitt review recommended a golden thread of information be maintained, and there are signs this is already happening on projects.

Virtual surveys could be a powerful tool for recording the condition of existing properties at acquisition stage or lease commencement. They may also offer an opportunity to improve the way we produce schedules of condition, where visualisation of the asset is so important. This could protect the interest of both parties to a lease much more clearly than existing photographic and tabular forms of schedule.

Any files produced as part of this process need to be hosted somewhere, and must be in a form fully embraced by our peers in the legal sector, so they are compatible with the leases. The barriers to adoption of such digital information do not seem insurmountable, so compatibility may be expected before too long.

Regardless, these marginally uplifted front-end TDD costs can feasibly be offset by costs saved by clients, asset managers, project teams or lawyers who do not have to travel to the site physically. The larger the number of stakeholders who will be involved in seeing the building or acting on any findings, the more impact that small investment will have.

There can be no interpretation or comment on the significance of issues presented by a building without a surveyor's or engineer's inspection. The reflection and professional expertise of these specialists is what provides our clients with the confidence to make decisions and invest in an asset.

In addition, it is possible that destructive testing will be necessary to get a full picture of a building's condition; for example, lifting a raised-access floor tile in an informed location, taking core samples from cladding or opening up plant machinery to see its condition.

Further points to consider are that virtual surveys may not be suitable for all building types. Complicated and compartmentalised spaces make it difficult to navigate the building remotely to take images or collect data.

Nevertheless, the improved visualisation techniques offered by 3D cameras have great potential to supplement our existing TDD reporting, and the way we communicate with our clients. As well as being an opportunity to reduce travel, virtual surveys can play a key role in TDD reporting beyond the pandemic.

Jay Ridings is a senior associate at consultancy TFT
Contact Jay at: Email

Related competencies include: Data management, Inspection