We live in a mid-terrace victorian house which we are selling and have accepted an offer on. Our buyers had a regular homebuyer survey which showed up slight dampness. The surveyor actually told us it was nothing to worry about, as higher readings are normal in older houses but that he would recommend a specialised damp survey, basically to cover his own back.

Our buyers organised a survey, and a guy came from an actual damp proofing company, put his little meter on the wall and claimed our whole house had rising damp. He was very assure that no lender would lend on a damp house. We’ve lived here for 3 years and aside from one patch by the front door there is no signs whatsoever of damp. He even claimed our newly renovated kitchen would need to be ripped out and every single wall injected it was ‘that’ bad. He even said to us “I don’t know how you live here – it’s so damp!” I was so baffled and confused, if it was that bad how did we not know? Why are there no signs? After he went alarm bells just started ringing.. how can someone claim there’s a problem when there is no problem? And he was so assure that his report would stop any buyer being able to buy this house without an injection course needed first, almost as if it was in his power to get us to buy the bloody treatment off of him otherwise we can’t sell! I also realised he never even checked the exterior of the house, what about the pointing? Or maybe an overflowing drain? He was so quick to label it ‘rising damp’ throughout the whole downstairs. Our first time buyers are bound to run a mile, and like he said, if they don’t, will the lender request a course? I feel scammed, conned and confused. I thought about getting our own surveyor in.. But if we don’t believe our buyers surveyor, why would they believe ours?
Any advice on what to do?
Or any recommendations for independent reasonably priced surveyors for the nottinghamshire/lincolnshire area would be grateful appreciated!

Try and get an independent surveyor out, one that is not connected to any “damp” company. They are about.

There is a lot of nonsense and dodgy dealings when it comes to damp and houses. I’ve had a few problems over the years with timber and damp surveyors.

Some info here Fraud of rising damp

There’s a lot of scepticism about rising damp in general and especially these people that promote injecting the walls. I certainly wouldn’t listen to them but unfortunately its what your buyers think that matters. How good is their offer?

The guy that came round was a salesman and he recommended that you buy the product he sells.

I knew someone who worked in this and he said every house has damp and it is to do with circulation

Basically rising damp can only go so high and even then it would need to be built in a swap as capillary action [ iirc] can only work so high – 1.5 m ish iirc

Its BS basically from companies selling you a product that does nothing to make them money.

How you get round it i have no idea tbh but an independent survey will be needed but I assume the mortgage lender has to use one they approve of which may well find damp- how much will the treatment costs is it worth just paying as part of the sale – knowing off say 75% of the cost or similar for ease?

Sounds very dodgy, especially coming from a damp proofing salesman – could be condensation.

Was there no mention of damp when you bought the house 3 years ago?

Their offer was full asking price, but they’ve said they wont be released the mortgage offer with our supposed damp situation. We’ve already been messed around by a previous buyer, I’m really keen not to lose this one! And I’m also keen to not inject my walls with a damp course that is ridiculously overpriced and not necessary!

There was no mention of damp when we bought the house either

One trick i know of is to touch the probe with your finger as it is held against the wall this will register human dampness , if you see anyone doing this run away.

I really feel for you on this.

I had an old stone built house, that was dry lined with a plasterboard inner. It was very typical of the area.

There was a common problem of stone and mortar falling away and getting trapped between the outer wall and plasterboard, forming a bridge for the moisture. When selling a surveyor insisted on a timber and damp survey be performed because of moisture levels. The damp guy wanted £6000 to remove the plasterboard and replace the lintel!

I told him to do one and it turned out it was simply some small bits of stone that were causing the problem.

Absolute tossers.

\try this link Independent Surveyors

Good luck.

They’ve basically sent someone round to generate a huge sum to try and haggle you down with. When they offered the full amount were they in competition with others?

Most ‘rising damp’ has a another source anyway, often with far cheaper fixes and less intrusive. The house has been fine for well over 100 years on the same bit of ground. So if the walls are damp – look for a source of water ingress and address that.

Firstly mr damp meter can’t make assumptions for mortgage lenders.
They may well still lend but not to the full value.
Secondly I’d be getting a second opinion.
Thirdly, all houses don’t have damp.
At the end of the day he should just be doing a report and getting back to the agent. Damp is not that big an issue and can be sorted.

We had exactly the same issue…surveyor recommended a damp survey.

We didn’t get a chance to offer to pay for an independent surveyor of their choosing so a national company sent round a ‘salesman’ for a free survey. I wasn’t there but from the holes in the wall it appears he forced that meter into the plaster with a frikken mallet…it should be a light pressure. He also didn’t take reference readings from higher up the wall.

We ended up with a quote for £2k for several meters of injection resin stuff, and based on one tiny hole in a timber, to strip the floorboards from upstairs to treat two floors and the loft timbers for possible woodworm. They also said downstairs was a solid concrete floor when its clearly suspended. i.e. one floor is bare floorboards with nails to the joists.

As the buyer was rather late getting themselves sorted we were running out of times, so wrote a letter explaining why it was a load of rubbish, but to get things moving, we’d go halves and take £1k off their full price offer. Their mortgage lender held £2k back, I told them I hoped they would not get the work done, take our £1k and forfeit the £1k retained by the mortgage lender, but alas they went and got it done anyway.

Its one huge con and next time I will be ready for it and insist an independent survey is done, rather than one by a damp proofing firm.

We’ve also been on the other end, potential purchase come back with damp, stuck between mortage lender retaining funds and a buyer that is unwilling to discuss.

We had a house with a damp wall. Given the damp was worse after rain, and the pointing was good, we dug the ground near the rainwater pipe and found a broken drain that was saturating the brickwork just under ground. Replaced that section of drain, made good the ground and a short time later everything was bone dry.

Dicking around with injecting stuff, pulling all the finishes off internal walls etc would have done naff all and not fixed the problem.

As others have said, I’d suggest getting an independent damp survey done…coincidentally this week we had one done on our house (Cost £220 all in which is a lot but we want to know whats actually wrong before looking at expensive remedial work). Loads of damp down one wall of our house and no mention was even made of rising damp, the damp meter didn’t even come out until the end and even then only one or two checks were made. We await the report but condensation and a driveway almost at the same level as the damp course are our main issues.

Thanks guys! I think I will definitely pay for my own independent survey, and challenge the original surveyor. It’s a total obvious conflict of interest, abuse of position, and a massive con. How this has been going on for so long is ridiculous! I feel so sorry for all the people taken in by it.

This is a useful source if you have an old property. The Fraud of Rising Damp

My house is older than yours btw so I know this guy is talking sense.

Scam!

We had pretty bad damp in our back wall and the injected damp proof course was still I’m warranty. The guy came round and made all sorts off bs excuses as to why his company codon’t ‘t honour the warranty.

I came on here asking for advice and as a result, rerouted the down pipe off the roof gutters, sealed the gaps round the upstairs windows, had a French drain (gravel filled trench) dug along the outside of the wall and replaced the guttering above the wall. Cost less than £500, including replastering and painting inside.

That was nearly a year ago and so far, no return of the wet patches, crumbling plaster and mould spores. Injected damp proof courses are, on the whole, an expensive scam which don’t address the causes of the damp. Avoid imho.

Total scam, the electronic meters are designed for use on timber. Only way to get a true reading is to drill into the suspect wall and take a sample, this is then weighed, dried, then weighed again.

Bit more info here

http://www.ukdamp.co.uk/diagnosing.shtml

Anyone who turns up with a little meter, with prongs they stick in the wall, a) either has no idea what they’re doing or are trying to sell something, and b) doesn’t understand an Old House (which is a specific term and needs to be handled differently).

Read big johns link.

Also the moisture meter used by the surveyor is likely to be intended for wood and not plaster, masonry concrete etc. High readings could be the result of salts in the plaster/ masonry.

Use an experienced rics surveyor with experience of older properties.

This kind of scenario really boils my piss…. I’m a chartered building surveyor who has spent a fair amount of time grubbing around supposedly damp houses.

Any house that was built without an effective dpc can be expected to draw moisture up via capillary action, which will pass through the surface of the wall and evaporate. If you smother the wall with gypsum plaster and vinyl, non breathable paints, you will get visible signs of damp, flaking plaster, salts etc. if you let the wall breath, it will reach an equilibrium where it shouldn’t cause you any serious problems, with the only drawback being a requirement for periodic redecoration.

9 times out of 10, the occupiers contribute to ‘dampness’ (read ‘condensation’) through sealing their houses up with UPVC windows, cement renders etc, plus producing huge amounts of moisture vapour though drying clothes on rads etc, then wondering why they are getting mould on their ceilings, window reveals etc.

In my experience, the vast majority of specialist damp treatments are not necessary, and will ultimately lead to premature failure of brickwork as the silicone causes water to be held in low level brickwork, causing frost spalling etc.

Oh, one final thing, anybody using a damp meter should make it clear that the readings are the ‘wood moisture equivalent’, so sticking a probe in a wall and showing a moisture content reading of 80% doesn’t mean the plaster has a moisture content of 80%….. Doubt Timberwise or Peter Cox would explain that to you though…

my two pence worth (i work as a stonemason and much of my work is fixing damp in old solid wall buildings)
get any cement off the outside of the building an replace it, if necessary with lime. cement acts like a plastic mack, it may be waterproof but we all know you still get wet from any moisture generated from within. these buildings need to breathe and lime, the material they were made from does just that, it acts like gortex, repelling rain but drawing moisture out whenever the wind blows.

Yup, can only echo the above, i.e. the rising damp industry is a massive fraud, especially when old houses are concerned.

We had an identical situation to most of the above: buying an old house, bank’s surveyor didn’t feel qualified to comment on damp issues so ordered a damp report, someone from a damp treatment company came out to do the report, unsurprisingly about £8000 of damp treatment was “urgently required”.

What they don’t tell you is that the damp meter is for measuring water content of wood only. It’s a conductivity meter, so anything that will allow a current to flow will give a reading. Given the amount of salts present in general building material, you’d get a reading even on a freshly fired brick.

We contacted the Heritage House chap, but he was too far away for us. Put us in touch with a Glasgow-based guy called Darren at Timber & Lime Conservation. He came out and did a very thorough survey, talking us through all the little foibles of old stone houses and the best ways to deal with them. Turns out all the moisture issues picked up by the original damp “specialist” were the result of a couple of duff roof tiles allowing water to run down the inside of a wall. Cost to repair – £200.

We bought our Victorian terrace about 15 months ago. The surveyor said it was damp so we got a local ‘specialist’, recommended by the estate agents to do a proper survey. As you would imagine, they suggested ripping out the kitchen and treating the walls. The mortgage company said they would hold back £3500 till this was done.
We went halves on the money with the vendor and payed our half out of savings.

15 months on, there is paint flaking in a few places but 3 out of 4 walls are underground, who cares, it’s got plenty of ventilation and doesn’t smell.

Good luck.

Our house is actually quite sympathetically renovated. We still have wood single glazed windows, hell, we don’t even have central heating! But this, and modern living does lead to condensation. Our kitchen extraction definitely isn’t great, and we only have one ventilation brick throughout the downstairs. So my theory is that moisture isn’t escaping. And with this, perhaps the evaporation process (as you say, walls needing to breathe) in the wall isn’t working as well as it should. I have absolutely no qualifications in this kinda stuff, but the term the damp guy used was “saturated” in damp. I keep walking around, feeling, looking at our walls, and there is simply no evidence other than his stupid device to suggest any sort of damp! I did get in touch with the heritage-house guy, but he was quite pricey for our teeny tiny house. I’m hoping an independent surveyor will be able to give us a more reasonable reason though…

I live in a mid terrace Victorian house. When I bought it, many moons ago, the survey also flagged rising damp. The mortgage company said they would withhold £1500 until I had an injected damp proof course put it, but that was it, the sale went ahead fine. In the end I got the money without doing anything as the rising damp turned out to be a leaking shower tray. So much for damp experts…..