The number, first
For a base facade safety survey in Taiwan in 2026, expect around NT$47/m².
Applied to a typical 20-storey building with 3,000–5,000 m² of facade area, that gives:
| Facade area | Base survey |
|---|---|
| 3,000 m² | ~NT$141,000 |
| 4,000 m² | ~NT$188,000 |
| 5,000 m² | ~NT$235,000 |
Adding an infrared thermal pass for hollowing detection typically adds around NT$40,000.
That is the honest middle of the market. Now the part that makes budgeting difficult.
Why published rates span 45×
Taipei City's Building Administration publishes reference figures for manual hammer-tapping survey. The low reference is NT$35/m². The high reference is NT$1,574/m².
That is a 45-fold spread for what is nominally the same service, and it is not explained by margin. It is explained by scope. Four variables move the number more than anything else:
1. Access method. Window-cleaning gantry tapping sits at the bottom of the range. Rope access with tapping, removal of loose material and localised waterproofing sits at the top. The Building Administration's own high reference is the latter.
2. Coverage percentage. This is the one almost never stated in a quote. A manual survey samples: an operative taps what they can reach in the working window. Whether that is 10% or 40% of the elevation changes both the price and — much more importantly — what the survey is worth. A quote that does not state coverage is not a quote you can compare.
3. Whether infrared is included. Visible-light survey finds spalling. It does not find hollowing, which is the precursor to the next spall. A survey without a thermal pass has not looked for the defect class that matters most.
4. Whether sign-off is inside the price. Statutory filing needs a report signed by a qualified inspector. If the quote covers the survey but not the professional attendance and signature, you have bought half of a filing.
Normalising two quotes
Before comparing, get all four answers in writing:
- What access method, and what percentage of the facade will be surveyed?
- Is infrared thermography included, and over what proportion of the elevation?
- Is the qualified inspector's site attendance and sign-off included?
- Is the diagnostic remediation report included if significant defects are found, or priced separately?
Once those are normalised, quotes usually converge far more than the headline rates suggest — and where one remains dramatically cheaper, the reason is almost always coverage.
The five-year view
A single survey is a snapshot, and snapshots price badly because they have no denominator.
Here is the framing we would suggest to a management committee instead. A whole-building survey once every ten years costs whatever it costs, and leaves you with no information for nine of those ten years — during which Taiwan sees 30 to 50 typhoons.
An annual survey on a repeatable flight path costs more in year one and less per year of information, because year two produces something year one could not: a rate. How fast is the hollowed area growing? Which elevations are stable and which are not? That is the input a five-year maintenance budget is actually built from.
Our own annual health contract is priced at NT$35/m² for a three-year term (covering three surveys), or NT$25/m² for a single survey without a contract. For a mid-sized community with 3,000 m² of facade, the three-year contract is around NT$105,000 — roughly NT$35,000 a year, which for most committees is a manageable annual line item rather than a special resolution.
What to check before you sign
- Is your building on the register? If it is in a filing round, the deadline sets your timeline. See Taipei's 2026 deadline.
- Is the report format right? It must follow the authority's prescribed structure — declaration form, current-condition photographs, defect record schedule.
- What happens in year two? If the answer is "we'd re-survey from scratch", you are buying snapshots. If it is "we re-fly the same path and compare", you are buying a trajectory.
Where to start
The useful first step is not a quote — it is knowing what condition the facade is actually in, because that determines the scope everything else is priced against.
Book an asset assessment or call +886-2-7733-7678. Full method-by-method market rates are in the facade cleaning cost guide.
