Most damp inspections are free, take twenty minutes and end in a quotation. This one is not that. Here is exactly what happens, so you know what you are paying for.
We ask what you are seeing, where, and when. Whether it is worse in winter. Whether anything has changed recently: new windows, a new floor, an extension, work to the roof, or a change in how the property is heated or used. If another survey or quotation already exists, we ask what it said.
Two of those answers change how the survey is run. A problem that only appears in the wet months has to be interpreted differently if we are standing in the property on a dry day in August, and we will say so in the report rather than pretend the timing did not matter.
Before we take a single reading in a problem area, we take a control reading somewhere in the building that is known to be dry, on the same construction, with the same meter, on the same day.
Everything else is measured against that number. Without it, a reading is just a number on a display, and it can be made to mean whatever the person holding it wants it to mean.
If you are ever shown a photograph of a meter reading and there is no control reading anywhere in the report, you have been shown a number rather than a finding. It is the first thing to look for in anybody's report, including ours.
Every survey is carried out with a Protimeter MMS3, a professional moisture meter used by surveyors and damp specialists across the UK. It measures four things, not one: moisture in the material, moisture beneath the surface without damaging it, humidity and dew point in the air, and surface temperature. Together they show whether damp is coming through a wall or forming on it, which is the difference between penetrating damp and condensation.
But a meter doesn't diagnose damp. A surveyor does. Rory built houses from the foundations up with a master builder before the Royal Marines, and has renovated and extended period homes ever since. That is what tells him what the readings mean in a real house, and when a reading can mislead. Good instruments and experience together are how we find the cause, not just the symptom.
Where a wall reads high in several places we grid it, at four fixed heights, so the readings can be compared with each other rather than quoted individually.
| Height | Why it is there |
|---|---|
| 100mm, at the skirting | Bridging and splashback |
| 600mm | Where genuine groundwater sits |
| 1200mm | Where groundwater stops. Anything high here did not rise from the ground |
| 200mm below the ceiling | Roof, gutter and rainwater ingress from above |
The shape those four numbers make is what names the mechanism. One reading in isolation names nothing.
Every damp and mould survey includes thermal imaging. Each thermal image is taken from the same position as its ordinary photograph, so the report can show you the two side by side and you can see for yourself what is cold and what is wet, and that those are not the same question.
A thermal camera measures surface temperature. It does not see moisture and it does not see through walls. Used with moisture readings it is one of the most useful things we carry. Used on its own it produces a persuasive picture and a wrong answer.
Where the symptom points to water getting in, we inspect outside too: ground levels against the wall, rainwater goods, the state of pointing and render, sealant at reveals, thresholds, gullies and drainage. A great many internal damp problems have an external cause that costs a few hundred pounds to correct.
Ventilation is recorded and measured against the relevant benchmark. We will tell you where a background ventilation gap sits alongside a cold surface, because that is where mould appears next winter.
If the evidence supports a conclusion but does not close it, the report says highly probable on the evidence, not confirmed, and it names what would settle the question. A dry inspection of a wet season problem, or a reading an electrical meter cannot separate from salt contamination, is not a proven diagnosis and we will not present it as one.
This is the single biggest difference between an independent report and a quotation. A quotation cannot afford uncertainty. A diagnosis can.
The joint position statement on the investigation of moisture and its effects on traditional buildings, published in 2022 by Historic England, RICS and the Property Care Association, sets out the same approach: establish the root cause rather than treat the symptom, consider every source of moisture, and assess on evidence, because the wrong remedy can make a building worse. BRE Digest 245 is equally plain that high moisture meter readings alone are not conclusive. What a damp meter can and cannot establish.
A meter can read high on salts as well as on moisture, so no single reading tells you very much on its own. The important thing is to take the whole building into account, its history, its layout and how it is actually built, and not get lost in one number.
Rory Thorne, Vigilant SurveysOnce the cause is established, the answer is a conversation rather than a single price.
Industry best practice, done properly and done once. Usually the most expensive route, and sometimes exactly the right one.
The work that addresses the cause and nothing beyond it. This is what most people choose.
What to do to keep the problem in check, and what to watch, while you wait until the full works are affordable or practical.
All three are legitimate. Which one is right depends on your building, your plans and your budget, and it is your decision, not ours. We have nothing to sell you at the end of it either way.
We record what we surveyed. That is a deliberate limit, and it is worth stating.
We will not write about tenants, landlords, tenancies or how anybody has been living in the property. We will not say whether a guarantee is valid, whether anyone has a claim, or who is liable. We will not make statements about health. We will not comment on another surveyor's report inside the report itself. We do not name contractors. Measured quantities and indicative costs appear only in the Whole Property Survey with Costings, and they are never a quote.
If you need any of those things, they are somebody else's job, and a report that strays into them is worth less, not more, when it is read by anyone who matters.
Questions about what the report says, what a reading means, or why we reached a conclusion are part of the fee. Ask as many as you like. Further site time, specifying works in detail, or inspecting on completion is a new instruction and we will quote for it.
Two real surveys, anonymised and published in full with the clients' permission, with every reading and photograph exactly as recorded on site.
About two hours on site for a focused investigation of the affected areas, longer for a whole property, and the written report is produced within 24 hours of the inspection. You get every reading, the photographs, the thermal images, the cause, what to do about it in the order it should be done, and a plain English summary with no jargon in it.
A control reading is taken before any reading in a problem area, using the same meter on the same day, on the same construction, somewhere in the building known to be dry. Everything else is measured against it. Without a control, a number on a meter display means nothing, because there is nothing to compare it to.
Not automatically, and it is worth asking why before agreeing to it. Plaster is replaced where it is contaminated with salts that will keep spoiling the finish, or where it has broken down. Sound, dry plaster does not need replacing because there was damp nearby, and replastering before the water is stopped simply repeats the damage.
No. We carry out no remedial work, sell no products, and take no commission or referral fee from anyone who carries out repairs. We tell you what is causing it and what needs doing, and you take that to whoever you like.
No payment to book. Tell us what you need and Rory will call you back, usually within a couple of hours, to talk it through and confirm a fixed price.