Traditional timber houses provide a signifi cant image of the built environment
heritage, especially for south-east Asia, which holds more than half of the
timber species in the world. It is therefore vital for professionals to ensure
that the timber houses are still in good condition. When judging the condition
of the building, a comprehensive evaluation is desirable, so that a reliable
recommendation can be made within the shortest possible time frame. The
priority ranking system developed through this research is appropriate for this
purpose. The streamlined methodology uses numerical coding for the survey pro
forma. From the priority ranking, the data are used to determine the condition
of the house: dilapidated, fair or good. As this is a pilot project, the system
was tested on the small-scale traditional timber house called Khmer houses in
Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We found that the survey effectively refl ects the current
state of the house.