Survey costs
A contractor prices daywork because the floor was not opened. Is that daywork rate a RICS condition rating?
No. A daywork rate is not a RICS condition rating. The contractor is charging for time because the floor was not opened and the extent is unknown. Ratings are a condition language. Rating 1 means no repair is currently needed, normal maintenance. Rating 2 means repairs or replacements are needed but they are not serious or urgent. Rating 3 means serious and/or urgent. NI means not inspected. A daily charge is none of those.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
What is the fuller explanation?
Daywork appears when nobody can yet measure the job. The unopened floor is a limit on knowledge, which is also why a visual survey does not pretend concealed parts are sound. The contractor's rate is how they want to be paid for labour while they find out. It is not a judgement that the defect is urgent, and it is not a judgement that nothing is wrong. You can have a calm rating 2 and still be offered daywork, or a rating 3 and a contractor who will only work that way until the boards come up. The rate does not rewrite the rating.
Do not put the daywork rate into the negotiation as if RICS had published it. The guidance does not set day rates, and this report has not printed one as a condition score. Ask the contractor what a day includes, who supplies materials, and what happens when the opened floor shows either a small repair or a large one. Ask the surveyor what they could not see. Keep those as two conversations: condition on one side, the contractor's charging method on the other. Neither conversation authorises you to invent a number of days and call it the survey's cost.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- What could you not see because the floor stayed closed?
- Does NI or a limitation apply to this floor?
- Would opening up change the rating, or can you not say until it happens?
What are the typical next steps?
- Keep the daywork terms on the contractor's quote.
- Do not rewrite a daily charge as a condition rating.
- Ask what a day includes before you rely on the method.
Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.
Also asked about this
If the floor is opened later, does the old daywork rate become rating 3?
No. Opening up may change what everyone knows. It does not turn a charging method into a rating.
Did the survey publish a day rate because it could not see the joists?
No. A limit on inspection is not a daily price. The report did not set the contractor's rate.