Perform an External Wall Inspection
How To: Performing an External Wall Inspection
The External Wall Inspection — referred to in the RiskBase app as the External Wall Survey — is a structured data capture assessment used to record detailed information about a building's external wall construction and associated elements. It is a data capture tool only: it does not include analysis or engineering judgement. Analysis happens during the Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls (FRAEW), which is fed directly by the survey data and produces a PDF report used as supporting documentation.
For background on what a FRAEW is, see What is an FRAEW and What is PAS 9980. For the analysis stage, see How To: Producing a Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls.
Prerequisites
Role and permissions
Assessor permission must be assigned to the user.
Access to the RiskBase mobile application is required.
Access must be granted to the relevant properties.
The properties must be downloaded from the cloud to the device before survey work begins.
Data and configuration
The property must already exist in RiskBase.
The compliance type "External Wall" must be enabled for the organisation.
All fields referenced by the External Wall Survey template must exist in the system.
Start an Inspection
The flow mirrors the start of a Fire Strategy assessment, but uses the External Wall Summary route:
From the "Downloaded Properties" page, tap on a property to open its property page.
Tap External Wall Summary.
Tap Create External Wall Survey.
Select an appropriate template from the list.
The survey opens, displaying its section navigation.
Figure 1: [the property page with the External Wall Summary tab highlighted, leading into the Create External Wall Survey button].
Complete the Survey
The External Wall Survey is built from a template tailored to external wall construction and the elements that influence its fire risk. Work through each section in turn:
Review and complete each Building Information field — overall layout, height, escape strategy, occupancy, compartmentation arrangements.
Capture External Wall Construction details — substrate, insulation, cladding system, fixings, finishes — at the level of detail the template requires, broken down by elevation where construction varies.
Capture Cavity Barriers and Compartmentation as observed.
Capture Attachments — balconies, signage, planters, services penetrations, and anything else fixed to or passing through the external wall system.
Add findings, photographs, and measurements as required by each section.
Individual fields within the survey can be configured as required. Required fields are flagged in the template, and an assessment cannot be submitted while any required field is empty.
Figure 2: [a survey section with a required field highlighted and an example finding entered].
Templates and Default Answers
Templates can include default answers for common configurations. Using templated defaults reduces the volume of quality control required at submission and helps maintain consistency across surveys.
Templates are managed centrally and configured per organisation. If a template is missing for a recurring construction type, contact the RiskBase team or the organisation's RiskBase administrator.
Dictation and Spell-Check
The survey relies on the device's built-in functionality:
Dictation — use the keyboard's microphone icon to dictate into any text field.
Spell-check — handled automatically by the device's keyboard.
No additional configuration is required within RiskBase.
Offline Behaviour
The External Wall Survey is designed to be completed entirely offline. All building data required for the survey is downloaded to the device when the property is downloaded.
The survey can be completed with no internet connection.
Data syncs to the cloud continually whenever an internet connection is available.
No data is lost when working offline, provided the device remains operational.
Findings, Reuse, and Limits
There is no limit on the number of findings that can be added to an External Wall Survey.
All previous asset data for the property is held in the central data repository, so existing records (for example photographs of cladding details captured during a prior assessment) can be reused or built upon rather than re-captured.
When a new survey is created on a property that already holds data, that data is automatically pulled through into the new survey, so the survey is cumulative and built upon over time.
Submit for Quality Control
From the assessment overview, tap Submit.
The survey moves into the "QC" and "Approved" tabs and triggers the organisation's custom quality control process.
Quality control may include checks on completeness, accuracy, photographic evidence, and adherence to the template.
Once QC is complete, the survey is approved and retained in document control with full version history.
If a survey is unsubmitted after approval and later re-approved:
a. Each version is saved. b. Each submission, unsubmission, and approval is logged. c. All actions are recorded in document control, including any custom stages and flags.
After approval
Once approved, the survey is retained in document control with full version history and is available as the appendix and data source for the PAS 9980 FRAEW. When an FRAEW is started for the same property:
All External Wall Survey data is automatically pulled through.
Content is pre-laid out for the engineer producing the FRAEW.
No duplication of survey work is required — the engineer focuses on the analysis elements (risk factors, classification, and recommendations).
For the next stage of the workflow, see How To: Producing a Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls.
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