Drawings and specifications do not build buildings — people do, at speed, under commercial pressure. The difference between the building you were promised and the building you get is verified on site, week by week. Manchester Surveyors provides clerk of works and site inspection services: independent quality eyes on your project while it can still be put right cheaply.
What Our Clerk of Works Service Delivers
- Scheduled site inspections — weekly, fortnightly or stage-based visits matched to the project’s risk points (foundations, structure, weatherproofing, first fix, finishes)
- Workmanship verification — checking work against drawings, specification, Building Regulations and good practice, with photographic inspection reports after every visit
- Non-conformance tracking — defects logged, raised with the contractor and chased to closure, not just noted
- Critical-stage witnessing — the work that disappears from view: damp-proofing, structural connections, drainage testing, fire-stopping
- Handover support — snagging inspections drawing on our snagging survey expertise
Who Uses This Service
Homeowners on extensions and self-builds who cannot police quality themselves; landlords and management companies during major works; developers wanting an independent quality record; and funders alongside our development monitoring work.
Why Independence Matters
A clerk of works employed by the builder inspects nothing. Ours report to you alone — and because our surveyors diagnose construction defects for a living in Level 3 surveys and expert witness work, they know exactly where builders cut corners and where to look first.
Project starting on site? Arrange inspection cover — fixed visit rates across Manchester, Birmingham, London and the UK.
What a Clerk of Works Checks
A clerk of works is the employer’s eyes on site: independent, detail-level inspection of workmanship and materials while the work is happening — not after it is covered up. Typical checks include foundations and reinforcement before pours, damp-proofing and cavity details before close-up, fire-stopping, insulation continuity, roof coverings and flashings, and finishes against specification. Findings are reported in writing, with photographs, while there is still time to put things right cheaply.
Site Inspections to Suit the Project
Full-time clerks of works suit larger schemes; most of our North West clients need proportionate cover — weekly or stage-based inspections timed to critical operations, often alongside contract administration so that quality findings feed directly into payment certificates. Where quality failures have already been built in, our construction expert witness service documents defects to litigation standard.
Clerk of works or snagging inspection?
Snagging happens at the end, when defects are already built; a clerk of works prevents them being built at all. On anything structural or covered-up — foundations, tanking, fire-stopping — prevention is worth far more than the snag list. Fixed fees per visit: call 020 4579 8270.