What good damp reporting looks like

Why damp reporting goes wrong

Damp sits at the intersection of everything surveyors worry about: it's common, it's sometimes serious, its causes overlap, and misdiagnosis is embarrassing. The defensive response is to record readings, recommend a "specialist damp survey", and move on. That protects the surveyor — it doesn't help you.

The four things a good damp section answers

1. Where, exactly?

"Elevated readings to the ground floor" is too vague to act on. Good reports name rooms and walls: "elevated moisture readings to the base of the chimney breast in the rear reception room, up to approximately 1m above floor level."

2. What kind of damp is it likely to be?

The main candidates behave differently, and a surveyor should usually be able to offer a probable type:

• Condensation — the most common by far; often shows as mould in corners, cold walls, around windows.
• Penetrating damp — localised, often traceable to a defect outside: gutters, pointing, flashings, ground levels.
• Rising damp — genuinely less common than the industry suggests; a horizontal tide mark at low level on ground-floor walls.
• Plumbing leaks — localised and often mistaken for the others.

3. What's the likely cause?

Damp is a symptom. High external ground levels, blocked or leaking rainwater goods, failed pointing, bridged cavities, poor ventilation — a good surveyor connects the moisture they measured to a plausible cause they observed, even provisionally.

4. What should happen next — specifically?

There's a world of difference between "further investigation by a specialist is recommended" and "clear the rear gutter and repoint the affected area, then re-check; if readings persist, commission an independent damp investigation (not a free survey from a treatment company)". The second is advice you can act on and cost.

Red flags in damp sections

• Moisture readings quoted with no locations, interpretation, or follow-up
• An immediate referral to a "damp and timber specialist" with no view offered at all
• No comment on ventilation, ground levels, or rainwater goods anywhere in the report
• Copy-paste paragraphs about damp "commonly found in properties of this age"

What to do if your report falls short here

Ask your surveyor the four questions above about each damp reference. If the answers should reasonably have been in the report for its level — particularly in a Level 3 Building Survey — you may have grounds to request a correction, clarification, or partial refund. Our analysis maps each damp reference in your report against these expectations automatically.