Property viewing...damp? Any ideas how to work out?

[Littlebeausheepish]

We recently went round a house with my Dh recently. I thought there was a smell of damp in the property and potentially some patches which looked suspicious to me. DH said he couldnt smell it and dismissed it...

This is a potential dream home and I want to make sure we get it right, also don't want to be one of those people who puts an offer in and then pulls out or reduces the price. But also dont want to spend £1,000 doing a survey. Any ideas on how we could find out so that we can see if it is and how much it would cost to repair...

Any ideas or help would be great please

Buy a pinless handheld damp meter, ask for a 2nd viewing and test the wall that you're worried about. Anything above a reading of 18 (i think) indicates damp.

I think my first step would be just to ask the agent if the seller is aware of any damp and if so has any idea of the cause.

You could ask a reputable builder to have a look - but it would be wise to have a survey regardless in case any other issues are spotted.

how old is the house? You need to be careful of ‘damp proofing companies’ who will doubtless recommend damp proof injections etc. which can be useless in old houses and often not necesary.

damp is often caused by leaking gutters and drain pipes, leaking other pipes and raised ground levels outside which breach original damp proof courses.

Don’t buy a house without getting a survey.

How old is the property and does it have solid walls?
Did you notice the ground height outside? Do you have any exterior photos (crop if necessary) that shows the brickwork/ground?

You don't want to spend £1k getting a survey - if you buy something with big issues it could cost you x 20 that to correct. You need a survey,

Thing is a survey will just say “signs of damp” they say “signs of everything” just to cover their arses, they are awful and now not worth the money or effort. We had a full one plus pay extra for surrounding garden, turns out there was knotweed, and guess what zero come back.

Are the gutters or downpipes blocked?
Is there any sign of a leak on the supply up to and going under the property?

It would have been a hard no from me even if I just suspected a problem. You spend a fortune on a house and only inspect it briefly before getting into contracts etc.
At least with a car you have a test drive (sometimes for 24 hrs or more).

These meters are for moisture percentage in wood and not walls.

Did you see anything? Damp and mould are very different. Some black spotting on walls is likely to be down to lack of heating/ventilation and not damp. Damp will present itself as bubbled/peeling paint/plaster and actual water staining to the wall.

If there is damp it can be a really serious problem if I had any suspicion of serious damp I would walk away. To be sure you need a specialist damp survey. Look for bridged damp proof course, leaking gutters and downpipes for more easily fixed problems.

It could be due to any of the following:
1 Leaks, drains, gutters, high ground level.
2 Ventilation
3 External walls, render, pointing, paint (ie walls can't breathe)
4 Internal walls, plaster, paint (again stopping the walls from breathing)
5 Heating (lack of, not effective, not combined with ventilation to allow humid air to circulate and escape)

Thank you very helpful! I will go back with a pin detector too to see ahead of offer. I found a tool called Brickwise where I uploaded the photos, which was helpful and it said there was likely damp in the room and it would be over a £1k to fix even the decoration. It also said to check the gutter outside as did Mrsmostytoasty here!
Will keep testing.. as I dont really want to offer before have got a good sense of what the problem is but the surveys only really happen after offer stage so tricky to know. Will keep you updated.

If you can smell it is there. In a bungalow recently the lingering smell which friends put down to old house smell was in fact a slow pin prick leak in the heating system under the ground floor bedroom which had rotted the entire joists (someone had put a nail through a pipe a long time ago, clearly) Covered up by carpet it was difficult to realise what was going on under the floor.

My sister had a collapsed drain which went unnoticed for five years, leaking into the wall of her kitchen. Picked up as rising damp on survey but it was the drain, not picked up.

If it's the house of your dreams and unless it's dry rot throughout, these things can be remedied. But it isn't usually with 'damp proofing".

Damp is also caused by applying gypsum plaster over old walls or poorly installed plasterboard and non breathable insulation - as in dry lining. Plastic windows without trickle vents can exacerbate condensation behind fitted cupboatds, kitchen units or even just heavy furniture. Foam underlay can also trap cold moist air in floors, and floating floors like laminate floors, under the warm bit.