Paul Halliday, executive building surveyor, Gleeds

My most memorable project: The Victoria in Ossett, West Yorkshire

This project was far from the most glamorous building that I have surveyed in my career but it was certainly one of the most memorable. The Victoria was a two-storey detached public house, built c1900s with out-building extensions and constructed from a mixture of stone brickwork and render finish under pitched slate roofs. As the lead surveyor, my role was to advise the client about the state of current repairs and to highlight any problems and sizeable costs prior to purchase. However, the survey revealed some of the worst defects I had ever seen: substantial bowing of the roofs and 75mm diagonal cracks in the walls. We estimated remedial works of £250,000, and due to the extent of repairs needed, we advised against the purchase and suggested it be demolished for residential development. It was hard to explain this to the client but I felt proud that I had provided a professional opinion to prevent a potentially disastrous purchase. For a surveyor this project really typified what it’s all about.

Tips to reach the top

Take advice from senior surveyors: you can really learn a lot from the more experienced people that you work with. Also, it’s important to develop good time management skills and commercial awareness. You need to be able to balance the amount of time that you spend on a task against how commercially profitable it is in order to be productive.