Surveys
What a proper survey
actually involves.
Ninety minutes, a moisture meter, a hygrometer, a borescope, a ladder, and someone who has opened up enough Welsh walls to know what they are looking at.
On site
Internal moisture profile
Readings at skirting level, 300 mm and 1 m on every affected elevation, plotted so the pattern is visible rather than asserted. Surface readings are cross-checked with deep-wall probes, because a conductivity meter reads salt and foil as enthusiastically as it reads water.
On site
Air and surface conditions
Relative humidity, air temperature and surface temperature at the cold spots. On a solid wall with no cavity this is what separates condensation from moisture arriving through the fabric, and it is the measurement most free surveys skip entirely.
On site
External defect inspection
Render condition and the cracks in it, ground levels against the wall, sub-floor ventilation, pointing, rainwater goods, chimney heads and flashings — and whether the wall is wearing a cement skin it was never designed to carry.
On site
Timber and sub-floor
Joist ends where they bear into damp masonry, wall plates, lintels and bearings, plus a lifted board, cellar inspection or borescope survey of the void where access allows. Rot is found under floors far more often than on them.
Where needed
Salt analysis
Nitrate and chloride testing on drilled samples. Ground salts confirm rising damp; their absence is frequently the single fact that saves a client several thousand pounds and a wall full of holes.
Afterwards
The report
Photographic, room by room, with the diagnosis and the evidence for it, then a schedule of works split into urgent, remedial and general maintenance — costed, so you can price it against anyone else's quote.
Buying, selling or lending
When a survey flags damp and the money stops.
Where a RICS Home Survey records dampness or timber decay, a lender will often hold a retention until a specialist report is produced. Wales has no statutory Home Report — that is a Scottish arrangement — so what a lender wants here is a dated specialist damp and timber report with a costed schedule of works.
It is nearly always cheaper to hold that report before the offer than to renegotiate after it. We write them to be read by a lender, a solicitor and a contractor without needing translation.
Book it in
Get the wall looked at properly.
One visit, one honest report, and a costed schedule you can take anywhere.