High damp readings but leak fix was resolved last year?

Blank11

I have seen a house I like but the home report mentions high damp readings for the room below the bathroom. It mentioned the bathroom suffered from a leaking pipe but has since been fixed. What I am skeptical about is that the leak was fixed last year and as far as they’re aware there has been no problem since, but the high damp readings is quite concerning. I am not knowledgable in this area but I don’t think it would take a year or more to dry out? 

propertyrental

what was used to take the readings?
What material was supposedly damp? Wood? Plaster? Brick?
What signs of damp were there? Smell? Mould? Peeling paint or wallpaper?

You're right that the damp should have dried out in a year, assuming the leak was fixed and the room lived in/heated. But so-called damp meters can be very unreliable.

Blank11

propertyrental said:

what was used to take the readings?
What material was supposedly damp? Wood? Plaster? Brick?
What signs of damp were there? Smell? Mould? Peeling paint or wallpaper?

You're right that the damp should have dried out in a year, assuming the leak was fixed and the room lived in/heated. But so-called damp meters can be very unreliable.

A moisture meter and the internal walls being a mixture of masonry construction plastered on hard and lined walls internally. I can see some stains but that might have been dried from the leak. That leads to another concern with the ceiling because the leak stain is at the ceiling and wall part. I have heard readings can be accurate but the fact that there was a leak and seeing some stains makes me skeptical. 

FreeBear

The damp meters often favoured by many surveyors are far from accurate when used on any material other than untreated wood. They measure the electrical resistance across the surface, and there is just too many variables to get a true reading. Even the type of paint can throw the readings off.

That said, in the right hands, they can be used to take relative readings across a wall. From those readings, you can build up a picture that may point to an area that requires further investigation. The most reliable way of getting an accurate measure of damp quickly is to drill in to the wall, take a sample of the dust and insert it in to a carbide meter - These meters and the calcium carbide are expensive, hence the need to be selective about the areas you are testing.

With a leaking pipe, the water could quite easily have pulled salts to the surface which would produce false readings with the typical pointy damp meter. If the wall feels dry to the touch, and paint isn't bubbling, then the wall is probably dry. A coat of stain blocker paint should prevent any brown marks showing through if/when you decorate.

Blank11

That is great to know thanks! I didn’t know about the potential of it being able to pull salt and giving it a false reading. I had concerns there is still an ongoing leak causing the high damp metre readings. 

propertyrental

Blank11 said:

That is great to know thanks! I didn’t know about the potential of it being able to pull salt and giving it a false reading. I had concerns there is still an ongoing leak causing the high damp metre readings. 

As Freebear says, they are not 'damp meter readings', they are 'electrical conductivity readings'.

Yes, water/moisture will conduct electricity hence can show a high reading,  but other materials conduct electricity too.