Condition ratings
A few brick courses are spalled beneath one leaking gutter. Does that mark the whole elevation as failed?
No. A few spalled brick courses beneath one leaking gutter have not marked the whole elevation as failed. Spalling there follows the wet from that gutter. Bricks further along the same face, if they were sound, keep their own description. Deal with the gutter and the damaged courses as the local defect, and do not describe the entire wall as failed when only those courses were named.
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?
Spalling is the face of the brick breaking away, here in the courses that sit under a gutter the report says is leaking. The water from that gutter is the local storey. Bricks a few metres along, if the surveyor found them intact, have not failed with them. Rating 2 is a repair or replacement that is needed but is not serious or urgent, which often fits a short run of damaged bricks and a gutter repair. Rating 3 is serious, urgent, or both, and would be used if the surveyor thinks the damage, or the leak driving it, cannot wait. Either number belongs to the courses and the gutter named, not to the elevation as a slogan.
The what to do now note, where the mark is rating 3, advises you to get written quotations before legal commitment. It does not invoice the seller to rebuild the wall. A rating 1 stretch, if one was given to sound brickwork elsewhere on the face, means no repair is currently needed there. Do not average the sound stretch with the spalled courses. The leak and the bricks are linked in the paragraph, so quotes should say so, but the link is that gutter to those courses. It is not a finding that every brick on the house has lost its face.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- How many courses, and under which gutter, are spalled?
- What rating did the rest of this elevation get?
- Is the gutter itself rated separately from the bricks?
What are the typical next steps?
- Describe the defect as those courses under that gutter.
- Do not tell the agent the elevation has failed.
- Ask for quotes that name the gutter and the spalled bricks.
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 gutter is rating 2, must the bricks be rating 2 as well?
Not by rule. The surveyor can rate the leak and the damaged bricks differently if the paragraphs say why.
Does spalling at the base of a wall mean the same thing?
No. Spalling under a gutter is a high-level wet patch. Damage at ground level is a different note. Do not merge them.