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One of the first differences American tourists often notice between the United States and Europe is the age of the buildings. In the United Kingdom, for example, 38% of homes were built before 1946. In contrast, the average age of an owner-occupied home in the U.S. is about 40 years old. These older buildings require specialized care, maintenance, and refurbishment, typically overseen by surveying firms with expertise in disciplines such as building pathology. 

What is Building Pathology? 
Buildings, much like humans, deteriorate over time. The rate and nature of this deterioration depend on factors such as the quality of materials used and the standard of construction. To ensure a building remains usable and enjoyable for years to come, it's essential to understand its materials, how it's deteriorating, and which interventions are appropriate and when to apply them. 

There are multiple disciplines employed by surveying firms to maintain older buildings in Europe. Building pathology, for instance, is the process of understanding why defects appear, why materials break down, and why a structure might not perform as expected. Building pathology can include anything from addressing damp ingress and roof leaks to façade deterioration and timber decay. Fundamentally, it enables professionals to investigate defects and determine when to intervene with the right solutions.  

Leading building pathology firms excel at maintaining, enhancing, and extending existing buildings — skills that are essential in regions with older building stock. These firms typically possess extensive experience in core building surveying services, legacy defect investigations, project management, and dilapidations. In the UK, surveyors often manage party wall matters, while in Ireland, they may act as building control assessors for local authorities. 

Why is Building Pathology so Important in Europe? 
In Europe, building pathology plays a vital role in the upkeep of legally protected historic structures — such as “protected structures” in Ireland and “listed buildings” in the UK — where owners are required to repair, maintain, and upgrade in ways that preserve the building’s original fabric and character. Building pathology helps preserve these protected buildings, allowing surveyors to understand how and when these buildings were constructed, as well as the materials used. 

While building pathology is essential for older buildings, newer ones can benefit from it too. In Ireland, for example, the economic boom of the 1990s triggered a surge in construction. However, the emphasis on quantity during that time often compromised quality, resulting in a legacy of defects. Addressing these issues requires building surveyors to apply building pathology techniques to repair and upgrade those buildings. 

Building pathology is also critical for sustainability. Consider that when an older building gets demolished, the structure releases a significant amount of embodied carbon. It is often said that the greenest building is the one that is already built, and through building pathology, professionals can effectively retrofit or refurbish an existing building to be more sustainable, avoiding unnecessary demolition. Energy retrofitting can even increase rental income, as shown by a study on office buildings in Ireland, and help organizations demonstrate progress toward meeting climate goals.  

If demolition is unavoidable, building pathology and pre-demolition surveys can help maximize material reuse, which represents a growing trend in Ireland, especially. These surveys assess what materials — like bricks, steel, or timber — can be salvaged and reused in the refurbishment process.

Building Pathology vs. Facility Condition Assessment 
Chartered building surveyors are recognized as experts in building pathology. While this profession is well-established in the UK and Ireland, it is less common in the U.S., where facility condition assessments are more typical. One common type of facility condition assessment involves collecting visual observations to evaluate the general condition of a building and its surrounding site. 

These assessments often address code compliance, safety concerns, and potential upgrades, helping clients prioritize improvements. The evaluation typically includes a review of façades, roofs, interiors, mechanical, electrical, plumbing systems, and structural components. Insights are largely based on the assessor’s expertise and their understanding of the client’s goals during the observation process. 

Building pathology, however, is much more diagnostic than facility condition assessment. It relates more to the study of defects (and failures) in buildings to understand the root cause and possible fixes. Unlike visual assessments, building pathology involves deeper analysis, often examining how environmental factors affect building elements, such as façades, foundations, and roofs. 

Of course, there are nuances and overlaps between facility condition assessment and building pathology. And although these services are crucial in Europe, the need spans continents. European firms can benefit greatly from adopting facility condition assessment techniques — and vice versa for American firms, as demonstrated by Woolpert expanding its services and capabilities through Murphy Geospatial, Bluesky, and Omega Surveying Services, which all recently rebranded to Woolpert or as a Woolpert company.  

The Benefit of Marrying Building Pathology with Geospatial Insights 
Just as the combination of facility condition assessment and building pathology offers significant value for clients with portfolios of aging assets, so too does the union of building pathology with geospatial insights. In Europe especially, the need to understand buildings is growing, driven by an increasing focus on retrofitting. Knowing what’s in the portfolio and understanding the existing building stock is becoming more critical every day. 

Geospatial firms create digital representations of buildings, primarily focusing on capturing spatial layouts. A building pathology expert complements these efforts by assessing and documenting the condition of building elements and — in some cases — diagnosing essential repairs to help preserve that asset’s value. Together, they deliver a more holistic view of the building — combining geospatial insights with detailed material and structural analysis. 

The combination of spatial data and material analysis provides clients with a deeper, more valuable understanding of their buildings. Moreover, by delivering actionable insights and extracting intelligence from the data — rather than leaving clients to decipher it themselves — firms empower clients to make more informed decisions about their building portfolios. 

The Future of Building Intelligence   
Whether a building is 100 days old or 100 years old, there is a growing desire among organizations, including designers, building managers, owners’ management companies, and investment funds, to digitize their portfolios. In addition to having access to digital models, they want to better understand the history of their assets. Eventually, they want to implement Internet of Things sensors to gain real-time operational data and foster a culture of predictive maintenance to avoid costly reactive repairs. 

Achieving these goals requires more than just building pathology expertise; it demands a robust integration of architecture, engineering, and surveying services. When these disciplines are brought together under the roof of a multidisciplinary firm, companies can gain a deeper understanding of their asset portfolios across Europe and beyond.