Rising damp missed on survey

[Risingdampener]

We moved house less than a year ago. Had the “top” survey (I’m not sure of the technical name!) - it reported that there was no damp.

We have since had the house decorated (£) and had some fab built-in alcove units fitted in the living room (£), only to discover that there is, in fact, a damp problem across one wall of the house. We are going to get it treated (£££…), and frustratingly it will mean we will need to re-decorate two rooms and have the lovely units ripped out and replaced.

Is there anything we can do in terms of going back to the survey company? Obviously, had we known about the damp issue from the point of the survey, we may have been able to negotiate some money off the purchase price, and would certainly have sorted the issue before doing cosmetic jobs. Would this be covered by insurance at all? Or do we just have to live and learn and suck it up?

Are you sure it's rising damp and not condensation? One of the problems with fitted cupboards, especially on external walls, is that there is no ventilation so condensation can get trapped behind them and turn to mould.

What's actually happened? Who have confirmed rising damp - is it a specialist company that do the injecting into the walls thing? They are notoriously unreliable if so.

I believe rising damp is quite rare. We thought we had a rising damp issue, but a damp specialist denied it. Subsequently it turned out we had a small leak through the roof seeping down and no one spotted that annoyingly.

Agree with PP, rising damp is not common, and is more prevalent in much older properties.

I thought I had this problem in my downstairs loo. It turns out to be condensation, and is now fixed simply by keeping the window locked on the latch to allow air flow and keeping the door slightly open.

Mmm, interesting! Yes it was a specialist company. Maybe we need to seek another opinion? Our next door neighbours have said they had to get the equivalent same wall in their house treated some years ago. The house was built in 1930.

I’d always felt that the living room had a slight damp/musty smell and a damp feeling to one lower corner of the (external) walls from when we moved in. My husband and dad were reassured by the survey - kicking myself for not investigating things earlier.

Have a look at what is going on outside on that external wall. Is the external ground level too high? Check your downpipes and gutters - stand outside and watch on a rainy day if necessary to see if they are overflowing. In most period houses those injection damp treatments are actually very detrimental.

Was the damp issue visible at the point of survey?

We successfully got most of our repair costs back from a structural engineer whose survey said our house required no immediate work - we had to be able to prove the issue was visible at the point of survey and missed by him as surveys can only report on what they can see.

Look at the external brickwork around that corner, is there any mortar missing between the bricks, does it need re-pointing?

Rising damp is rare, damp companies prepared to sell you damp proofing are common.

You need a serious look at why there is damp there - is water coming in from gutters? Ground too high?

Or water prevented from getting out? Poor ventilation, in an old house use of cement instead of lime plaster?

Basically steer clear of damp companies at all costs.

There are many who think rising damp doesn't exist.....think about it..if you left a brick half in a bowl of water, will the top get wet?

Thanks everyone. I’m so out of my depth with this! I will try and investigate. V busy with work and v pregnant so have left it all to my husband but he’s not exactly Mr DIY either! May need to take a day off to sort before we spend thousands on unnecessary work.

No, I don’t think we’d be able to prove this. Just that the bottom of one part of that wall (not the corner of the house actually, but the bottom corner of the external wall where it joins with the dividing wall with the dining room) always felt a bit damp and cold.

A big problem with surveys is that they are really good at covering their arses - hence why you get so much "electrics not checked - you should get your own certificate..." type content. A surveyor will be looking for evidence of issues and only report on whether they found evidence, rather than that they found issues, if you see what I mean. And the survey will have lots of disclaimers in about how they won't move furniture, won't move carpets etc, which gives them room to say "ah, well, we couldn't possibly find that because it was under the carpet..."

As a general rule "damp" is hugely dependent on the conditions inside a room. A cold house is almost always going to be damper than a warm house - and buildings need to breathe. It's kind of like hanging your washing out, warmth and good air circulation allows the water to evaporate and the clothes will dry out. It could be that the "damp" area you now have wasn't there when the survey occurred because the heating was higher (or it was summer) and there was nothing up against that wall. Entirely possible that the alcove units are preventing air circulating and so have created a problem where it didn't exist before.

I supposedly have rising damp in my sitting room.

What I actually have is an area plastered with cement plaster which needs replacing with lime.

Did that in another area, the water basically dripped out for a few weeks and not a problem since.

In old houses there will be another solution.

To add, there’s only about a foot of space between the external wall and the fence on that side of the house. I don’t think I can get down there as am in my third trimester and irrationally scared of spiders!

injecting with chemicals is a total scam - it will not work. find the cause such as gutters or ground too high and correct that then dry out with dehumidifier. However fitted cupboards can cause condensation

This is what has happened. Is there any way of getting around it? We have had the heating on high in that room, window open a smidge for ventilation (sorry environment), dehumidifier on…

Do you open the windows in the room regularly?

And do you dry washing in the room?

Yes! Although until this issue developed I admit to being better with upstairs rather than downstairs.

No! We use the line/have a very decent tumble dryer and then air things in the garage.

Are there any drains on the floor outside on that wall. We had a bloody nightmare with damp and got a few companies out each saying different things. Then got this guy out and he looked at a down pipe which went into a drain at the edge of our wall. The drain inside had slightly come away or something of that description and the water instead of going down the drain was going under the house.

We also, in another property, had damp at the top and the bottom of our porch area. Turned out the main drains for the street went under there and it was on a turn. The drains were that blocked that at the turn the had come apart and the porch area was sinking and pulling away from actual house. Insurance covered it and the drains were replaced and necessary repairs where done.