Age and type of house
The loft stair looks tight and headroom was not measured. Is a visual note a building-regulations test?
No. A visual note is not a building-regulations test. The loft stair looks tight, and headroom was not measured, so the survey has no figure to set against any requirement. Approved Document A is structural guidance for building work, and this visit does not issue a building-regulations certificate. Tightness to the eye is a prompt. It is not a pass and it is not a fail. The report records an unmeasured impression of the stair.
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?
Headroom, going and rise are dimensions. Without a tape on the stair, the surveyor can say the opening feels low or the flight looks steep, and must stop there. Building-regulations compliance for a loft stair depends on the rules that applied when the work was done and on what was actually built, neither of which a glance decides. The note is there so you do not read silence as approval. It leaves both the measurement and the certificate undone.
Ask the solicitor for any building-control certificate for the loft stair, and do not offer this sentence as that certificate. If the stair must be checked, someone has to measure it and compare it with the papers. A lender may want the approval itself. The home survey has not measured headroom and has not issued approval. Keep any later measurement separate from the visual note.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- What words describe the loft stair as tight?
- Where does the report say headroom was not measured?
- Does any sentence claim a building-regulations result?
What are the typical next steps?
- Treat the tight look as an unmeasured note.
- Ask for any building-control certificate for the stair.
- Do not brief the stair as passed or as failed.
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
Does holding a tape on a second viewing rewrite the report?
No. A tape you hold later is not this survey, and it does not turn the visual note into a building-regulations test. The report says headroom was not measured. Any figure you take is your own, unless a surveyor is instructed to measure and to write it up. Approved Document A is not issued by a casual remeasure.
Was the structure of the stair calculated?
No. The survey did not calculate the stair and did not measure its headroom. Approved Document A is structural guidance for building work, and this visit does not issue a certificate against it. The flight looked tight. That is the whole of the structural comment on the point, and it is not a test.