Moisture and damp in a Victorian house

Some houses are damp, and some aren't. Our current house (late Victorian) isn't, but we've had problems in the past in a modern house.

It may or may not be damp, but the fact that it's Victorian has nothing to do with it.

Doozergirl wrote: »

These meters have some use, where you already think that you might have a problem in a specific area because of other evidence, but arbitrarily sticking these on the wall surface, is *not* any way of diagnosing damp that is coming through brickwork. It is the brick that needs to be tested, not the surface of the wall, wallpaper or paint.

In this weather, the exterior walls of any unheated Victria. house will have condensation on them and will measure a reading because the meter only measures conductivity allowed by moisture. It doesn’t mean there is even a condensation problem, let alone a damp problem.

Thanks for tips, i guess the trickier the damp problem the less use they are. Just saying i have great results with mine, 6 properties checked now and it got them all spot on. But yeah with some very old potentially damp property i guess you need to check everything deep in structure. I would not buy anything like that personally.

Doozergirl wrote: »

What did they reveal, what physical evidence then presented itself and how did you rectify the issues?

Ok so i will explain if you are interested, its not near expert level stuff though lol and you will find many holes to pick in the logic. But i would say its much better than just checking with you eyes or hands. Some property i've checked out recently:

Property 1 = my mums property, = flat in building.

Known damp issues on 2 walls inside, it was pretty bad, mold etc. Measured 42% on the spikey damp checker. The damp guys came along and tanked the entire rooms. It, still actually measures 42% on the damp checker and she then had problems come back through the tanking already.

Property 2 = my own rented property it read the walls perfectly, the damp area it spots, (which we were told was salts coming through the paint) - its not its damp. All other walls it read dry and we've had no problems.

Property 3 = This was 1 i went to view, freshly painted renovated, i check all the walls, on 1 wall on the inside it read 20% iirc. I went out on the outer wall and go over 40% on the outside brick and this was on a dry but cold day. Anyway turns out they had a drainage problem on that part of the wall/outside and "the problem was now solved a while back" - yet it still read higher than any other wall in the house by some amount, all other walls under 10% etc, even on outside. So that stopped me buying that house.

Property 4 = Oldish terrace, the estate agent told before we went in it did have a damp spot under stairs in corridor but when i checked the damp meter reading was decent all over under the stairs, was very confusing. I ended up finding the real problem though and the estate agent had been giving wrong info, was above the stairs in a corner, damp meter read very high but nothing was viewable. Turns that previous people were about to buy this property until their survey revealed this damp spot which the spikey damp checker for £10 could have picked out for them.

I got a couple more stories but i found a bone dry house and put offer in. I just dont like chance of mold and i also have stock at home so need a dry place. . Also my mum has had a real hard time with her place, i dont want to deal with something like she has.