Every EWS1 survey is assessed and signed off by fully accredited professionals, including Chartered Fire Engineers (IFE, CEng) and Chartered Surveyors (RICS, CABE, CIOB), with full professional indemnity cover. Assessments are delivered in line with RICS, UK Finance, and PAS 9980:2022 standards, providing compliant, recognised and defensible reporting.
CEng, RICS, IFE, CABE, CIOB
Fully Compliant Assessments
Defensible Valuation Reports
Comprehensive Building Cover
We manage every stage of the EWS1 process — so you don’t have to deal with multiple contractors or third parties.
We support a diverse client base, including major developers, housing providers, and consulting firms. We deliver a consistent, compliant, and well-coordinated process that aligns with broader building safety and regulatory goals.
Where Building Safety Fund (BSF) or Cladding Safety Scheme (CSS) funding is required, our reports are produced to Homes England standards, ensuring full acceptance and avoiding the costly delays and repeat surveys that can arise from non-compliant documentation.
We manage the entire EWS1 process from start to finish—surveys, access, permits, and fire engineer sign-off.
Provide the key information about your building: height, cladding type, wall construction, age, and any available drawings. This helps us understand your building and plan the right approach.
We review your building information and perform a desktop survey to determine whether a simple EWS1 certificate is sufficient, or if a full FRAEW is required. This ensures the process is efficient and only as complex as necessary.
Once approved, we’ll organise the full survey schedule, including:
Access equipment (MEWPs, scaffold towers)
Permits where required
Coordination with building managers or residents to minimise disruption
You won’t need to deal with third parties or manage separate contractors — we handle everything.
Our experienced team carries out a thorough on-site inspection, whether that’s:
Intrusive inspection
Visual assessment
Or both
We operate with full insurance and RAMS, ensuring safety and efficiency, so the job is done right the first time.
You’ll receive a clear, structured report with:
Photographic evidence of inspections
Conclusions and risk ratings
Full PAS 9980 compliance
Sign-off by a qualified, accredited fire engineer
The report is ready for use by lenders, fire risk assessors, project teams, or housing bodies, giving you confidence and compliance at every stage.
We provide professional EWS1 survey services across the UK, delivering fast, fully compliant assessments no matter where your building is located.
Our EWS1 Surveyors operate in all major UK cities with high-rise residential and mixed-use buildings, including:
England: Birmingham - Bradford - Bristol - Coventry - Derby - Exeter - Hull - Leeds - Leicester - Liverpool - London - Manchester - Newcastle - Nottingham - Plymouth - Sheffield - Southampton - Stoke-on-Trent - Cambridge - Oxford - Brighton - Milton Keynes - Portsmouth - Salford - Southend - Preston - Chelmsford - York - Chester - Wolverhampton - Sunderland
Northern Ireland : Belfast
London
We have extensive experience working in London and provide services across all boroughs and neighbourhoods.
Home Counties
We have a dedicated team based across the Home Counties, giving us local knowledge of building types, councils, and access requirements throughout the region.
An EWS1 is a certificate lenders need to confirm your building’s walls are safe, while a FRAEW is a detailed technical survey of the walls, cavities, and fire breaks that provides the evidence engineers need to issue an EWS1.
Some buildings can go straight to an EWS1, but others require a FRAEW first. If you’re unsure which applies, once we have your building details, we conduct a desktop survey to determine the appropriate next steps.
An EWS1 (External Wall System 1) survey is the investigation and assessment process a fire engineer carries out to establish how a building’s external wall is constructed — its cladding, insulation, cavities, fire breaks and balconies — and whether it poses a fire safety risk. The findings are used to issue an EWS1 certificate, which lenders and insurers rely on to confirm the building is safe to mortgage or insure.
An EWS1 (External Wall System 1) is a certificate confirming a fire engineer’s assessment of a building’s external wall construction — cladding, insulation, balconies and fire breaks — used mainly by lenders and insurers to confirm a property is safe to mortgage or insure
EWS1 forms apply mainly to residential buildings with external wall systems — cladding, insulation or balconies — that could affect fire safety. They’re typically required for high-rise residential buildings (18m+), mid-rise blocks (11–18m) with any combustible materials or cladding, developments with timber or composite balconies, and mixed-use buildings where residential units sit above commercial space. Tell us about your building and we’ll confirm exactly what you need →
An EWS1 is the certificate itself; a FRAEW (Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls) is the more detailed technical survey that provides the evidence a fire engineer needs to issue that certificate where the building’s risk profile requires it. Not every building needs a full FRAEW first
Typically £2,000–£35,000+, depending on your building’s height, cladding and access requirements. Some other EWS1 service providers only assess the evidence and sign the certificate — the opening-up work itself is usually arranged separately, At Trident Facades Surveys handle both as one project, so the quote you get is the full cost, not just the assessment fee. See full cost breakdown →
Ratings range from A1 (no remedial work needed) through to B2/C (where remedial work is likely required before a mortgage can proceed) — the rating your building receives depends on what the investigation finds, y. Understand EWS1 ratings →
Only a suitably qualified, accredited fire engineer — typically chartered through the IFE or holding equivalent CEng status — can sign an EWS1 certificate; RICS surveyors can be involved in the process but can’t sign it alone.