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A wooden houseboat: what the surveyor wants to see
Short answer
Timber rewards care and punishes neglect,
which is why a wooden houseboat is almost always surveyed before cover starts.
The surveyor is not looking for a pretty boat but at planking, fastenings,
skin fittings and the electrics.
A timber hull ages differently from glass fibre or steel. It moves with moisture and temperature, its seams are meant to stay tight, and its fastenings corrode where nobody can see them. That is why a wooden houseboat is normally surveyed before cover begins, often ashore, and on older boats at repeating intervals. It is not suspicion about your boat; it is the only reliable way to describe its condition and its value before anything is written on that basis.
The surveyor looks at whatever can let water in or weaken what carries the load: planking and seams, the state of the caulking or the glue lines, frames and hog, the fastenings and their corrosion, every skin fitting with its seacock, the area around the engine and the shaft, the deck with its fittings and hatches, and the moisture in the timber, usually metered at many points. On a boat that is lived aboard, the electrics and the shore connection, the heating and the gas installation, and the tanks and their pipework come into it as well, because that is where most fires and most water damage start.
You can prepare for it properly. Clear lockers and the bilge so everything can be reached, and put together whatever tells the boat's story: invoices for work on hull and deck, certificates for the electrics, the heating and the gas check, earlier survey reports, and photographs from any rebuild. Say openly what you did yourself and what is still outstanding. A boat with documented care and an honest list of defects tends to come out of a survey better than one where the surveyor has to guess. Work through the recommendations afterwards and keep the receipts, because that is what gets asked about when something goes wrong.
Worth remembering
Hull
Planking, seams, frames, fastenings and skin fittings
Systems
Electrics, shore power, heating, gas, tanks and pipework
Have invoices and earlier reports to hand. Documented care is the strongest thing you can show on survey day.
Questions
What owners ask us about this
How often does a wooden houseboat need surveying?
That depends on age, construction and condition, and it will be set out in your own contract. On older boats a repeating survey is usual. Ask before you sign so you know the interval and what it will cost you.
Who pays for the survey?
Normally the owner, since the report describes their boat and is useful to them as well. Budget for the lift and the time ashore too, if the survey is to be done out of the water.
What happens if the surveyor finds defects?
You get a list with deadlines: some items before anything starts, others by the following season. Work through them and keep invoices and photographs, because those are what gets asked for after an incident.
Related
Not sure whether you qualify?
Whether it is “A wooden houseboat: what the surveyor wants to see” or another question: send us your residence and the flag your boat flies. You will get a straight answer in one email; including a no, if that is the answer.
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