Príncipe Real Apartment
A third-floor apartment bought at auction, with a crack across the living room wall that three previous viewers had been told was cosmetic.
€142,000Contracted and paid
19 weeksOn site
On timeAgainst the contracted date
2026Lisboa
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Survey to close-out, in the owners' own sequence.
The brief
A third-floor apartment bought at auction with a diagonal crack across the living room wall that three previous viewers had been told was cosmetic.
What the survey found
The crack ran from the corner of an opening, which is never cosmetic. The lintel above it had settled and the plaster had followed. Everything else in the flat was sound.
What we did about it
Lintel replaced first, the wall made good in lime plaster to match the rest of the apartment rather than in gypsum. The owners then paused for eight months; we honoured the scope and it re-priced within 4%.
“We came back most of a year later and the number was the number. That does not happen.”
Nineteen weeks, with an eight-month pause in the middle.
The owners stopped after the survey and came back the following spring. The log picks up where it left off, and so did the price.
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Day 1
Survey
The crack ran diagonally from the corner of an opening, which is never cosmetic. The lintel over it had settled and the plaster had followed.
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Week 3
Scope
Lintel replacement priced first, everything else priced after it. The owners had eight months before they intended to move, so the sequence had room.
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Week 4
Pause
They paused for eight months. We honoured the scope when they came back and it re-priced within 4%.
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Week 11
Structure
New lintel set, wall made good in lime plaster to match the rest of the apartment rather than in gypsum.
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Week 19
Close-out
Delivered on date. The engineer who wrote the original note came back to sign off the repair.
They paused for eight months. The price held.
A survey does not expire the week after you buy it. Book one now and use it when the building and your own timing are ready.