Damp reading after Homebuyers Survey/Report

Faith1960

We have just had a Homebuyers Report done on our property this week and the surveyor mentioned finding damp readings on the low wall either side of our patio doors. He wouldn't go into detail to us obviously as he was there on behalf of our buyers but did say that a lot of properties with bay or patio windows etc. have this problem as they are usually double brick. We told him that in our 26 years in this house, we had never had any symptoms of damp in that area, no discolouring of wallpapers or the like. When I asked him if that meant the damp reading would show up as a "RED" on his report he said yes. Naturally we are now concerned as to what our buyers will decide to do.

We have decided to purchase our own damp meter reader so that we can check for ourselves the areas he said were damp. One thing the surveyor mentioned which I did find puzzling was when I asked if the survey had been done in August would it have shown damp then and he said possibly not.

FreeBear

Faith1960 wrote: »

We have decided to purchase our own damp meter reader so that we can check for ourselves the areas he said were damp.

A bit of advice - Those meters are only good for reading the moisture content of untreated timber. When shoved in to plaster or any other building material, any number of things will affect the readings - e.g. The type of paint used, any salts in the walls, even the type of plaster will give dramatically different readings. That said, used correctly, they can be used to give an indication of possible damp.

A wall either side of a window or door will be slightly cooler than the rest of the wall. It goes without saying that there will be slightly elevated condensation in that area. Depending on how the information is presented to your buyer, it might prompt them to investigate further and hopefully find this page - https://www.heritage-house.org/damp-and-condensation/the-ping-prong-meter-guilty-of-fraud.html

stuart45

Not sure what the surveyor meant by it's a common problem as they are double brick. It does happen with older cavity walls, because the returned masonry wasn't insulated at the reveals. Even if the cavity was later insulated the reveals would a cold spot, especially at the base of the wall.
This part of the wall was also more likely to have a build up of mortar droppings.