Subsidence, settlement and heave
Three monitoring studs are fixed across a crack and this was a single visit. Can the survey draw a movement graph?
No. The survey cannot draw a movement graph from this single visit. Three monitoring studs are fixed across a crack, so the report can record that the studs are there and where they sit. A graph needs repeated measurements over time. One attendance gives one moment, or none if the studs were not read. It cannot plot whether the crack is opening, closing or still. The survey has not produced a movement history.
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?
Crack monitoring works by measuring between fixed points on several dates and comparing the figures. Studs only make that possible. They are not the readings, and they are not a graph. Someone may have fitted them after an earlier worry and then never logged them, or a specialist may hold a log that was not in the pack. This visit cannot reconstruct those dates. Describing three studs is a note of equipment on the wall, not a conclusion that movement has stopped or is ongoing.
Ask the solicitor for any monitoring log that belongs to these studs, with dates and readings, and keep it separate from this report. A lender may want an engineer to interpret a real series, which one visit has not supplied. Do not join the studs up in a sketch and call it the survey’s graph. If monitoring is to continue, that is a new regime with agreed dates, not a redrawing of this attendance.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Where are the three studs fixed relative to the crack?
- Does the report include any dated readings between them?
- What wording limits the note to a single visit?
What are the typical next steps?
- Record the studs as present, not as a graph.
- Ask the solicitor for any existing monitoring log.
- Do not sketch a movement history from one attendance.
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 a hairline crack beside the studs mean movement has stopped?
No. A hairline on one day does not say the crack is finished, and it is not a graph. The studs were seen once. Without earlier and later readings the survey cannot say the crack is opening or still. The report records the studs and the single visit. Movement over time stays unplotted.
Can the seller recall the readings instead of a log?
Memory of a number is not a monitoring record. The survey cannot draw a movement graph from a recollection plus one visit. Ask for the written log if it exists, with dates. Until that series is produced, the studs remain markers on the wall and this report remains a single attendance.