Case studies from real inspections, and guides for buyers navigating Swiss and German property. Written by the surveyor who does the work, not a marketing department.
01
Case Study
The apartment looked perfect. The building didn’t.
An Altbau flat in good order — and, two floors up, mould, a saturated wall, and a rejected insurance claim buried in the owners’ minutes. Collective repairs of €20,000+ heading for every owner.
02
Case Study
The renovation was flawless. The wall was still wet.
A burst riser, an insurance repair, a gleaming new bathroom — and peeling paint on the other side of the same wall. Thermal imaging raised it; the pin meter proved it.
03
Field Note
Thermal imaging: what the colours actually say
Real FLIR captures from our inspections — what a thermal camera reveals about moisture, insulation and pipework, and the honest limits of what it can prove on its own.
04
Buyer’s Guide
Damp & mould: what the wall is trying to tell you
The four ways water enters a building, what to notice at a viewing, and how a damp patch becomes a number you can negotiate with. Including the Swiss Erneuerungsfonds angle.
05
Buyer’s Guide
What a building survey actually is
Survey, valuation or agent’s appraisal — what each one tells you, what happens on the day, which one you need before signing, and what a survey cannot establish.
06
Buyer’s Guide
Is the flat as big as they say it is?
How floor area is calculated under SIA 416, what counts and what doesn’t — and why a five-percent error in Zürich is a five-figure mistake that follows you for years.
Want to see the output rather than read about it? Open a full sample report — real structure, fictional property.