Independent damp & timber surveys · All of Wales
Old walls, Welsh weather,
and the wrong diagnosis.
Around a third of Welsh homes were built before 1919, in a country that takes more rain than anywhere else in Britain. Those walls were built to breathe, and most of them have since been sealed shut with cement. We survey first, we don't sell chemicals, and the report is yours to act on.
- PCA-qualified damp & timber surveyor
- Independent survey, no tie to a contractor
- Reports written for lenders, agents & the courts
- Covering the whole of Wales
Three problems, one symptom
Damp is a diagnosis, not a product.
A tide mark on a Rhondda terrace can be four different things. An injected damp-proof course fixes exactly one of them. This is what we are separating when we survey.
Groundwater rising by capillary action
Rising damp
Genuinely uncommon, and over-diagnosed for fifty years. It stops at a horizontal tide line, usually under a metre, and carries ground salts that bloom through the plaster. On solid stone walls the cause is more often a raised external ground level, a bridged course, or a blocked sub-floor vent than a failed one.
Water crossing the wall from outside
Penetrating damp
The most common cause of a damp Welsh wall, and the one this country produces at scale. Cracked cement render on a rubble stone wall, failed pointing, a split downpipe, a slipped slate, a defective chimney flashing. It appears at the point of failure and worsens after rain rather than following the seasons.
Moisture produced inside the building
Condensation & mould
Black spot mould in corners, behind furniture, on cold reveals and single-glazed margins. Solid walls with no cavity run cold, and no chemical treatment will touch it. This is the category tenants report most, and the one the Welsh Housing Quality Standard timescales are written around.
The Welsh failure mode
Cement render on a wall built to breathe.
A solid stone wall has no cavity and no damp-proof course. It was never meant to be dry — it was meant to take water in and give it back out through lime mortar and lime render. Seal that wall in cement render and impermeable paint, as most of Wales did between 1960 and 1990, and the water still gets in through every crack but can no longer get out.
The result reads exactly like rising damp on a meter, gets treated as rising damp, and comes straight back. Identifying which of the two you actually have is most of the value of a survey.
What we do
Independent damp survey
Full moisture profile, salts analysis where needed, external defect inspection, photographic report with a costed schedule of works.
02 · SurveyTimber decay inspection
Dry rot, wet rot and woodworm. Joist ends, wall plates, sub-floor timbers, cellars, roof spaces and the hidden extent behind the plaster.
03 · SurveyPre-purchase & retention reports
Where a RICS survey flags dampness and a lender holds a retention, we produce the specialist report with the costed schedule that releases it.
04 · WorksDamp remedial works
Chemical DPC where it is genuinely warranted, salt-retardant re-plastering, lime plaster and lime render reinstatement, external repairs.
05 · WorksRot & woodworm treatment
Masonry sterilisation, timber replacement and resin repair, targeted insecticidal treatment where an active infestation is actually confirmed.
06 · ComplianceWHQS damp & mould reports
Investigation reports written to evidence the Welsh Housing Quality Standard timescales, with a plain-English summary you can send to the contract-holder.
The law changed on 1 April 2026
Social landlords in Wales are now on the clock.
The Welsh Housing Quality Standard was updated with effect from 1 April 2026 and now sets fixed timescales for hazards including damp and mould. It applies to councils and housing associations. Private landlords are not on a clock — but they are bound by a fitness duty that never switches off.
WHQS damp & mould timescales
- 24HOURS
Significant risk, harm likely imminent
Investigate within 24 hours, and carry out the work needed to remedy it within a further 24 hours.
- 10WORKING DAYS
Significant risk, harm not imminent
Investigate within 10 working days, then remedy within a further 5 working days.
- 5WORKING DAYS
If it cannot be finished in time
Provide the contract-holder with a written summary plan within 5 working days setting out what will happen and when.
Social landlords must also publish their response times and report performance to the Welsh Government. General guidance only — see the landlords page.
Why we charge for the survey
A free survey is a sales visit.
If the person diagnosing your wall is paid only when you buy the treatment, there is exactly one diagnosis they can afford to reach. That is how a great many Welsh terraces ended up with an injected damp-proof course they never needed, in walls where the real fault was cracked render or a broken downpipe.
We charge a survey fee and we tell you what is wrong, including when the answer is "nothing that needs us". You are free to take the report to any contractor you like. If you want us to carry out the works, the survey fee comes off the price.
Fees are quoted and confirmed in writing before we attend, along with your cancellation rights where the contract is agreed at your home.
Coverage
The whole country, and we know what it's built from.
Rubble stone terraces in the Valleys, brick and stone in Cardiff and Newport, rendered solid walls taking the weather on the Pembrokeshire coast, slate and stone cottages in Eryri where the rain is measured in metres. The building stock changes every thirty miles and so does the failure mode.
- Cardiff
- Swansea
- Newport
- Wrexham
- Merthyr Tydfil
- Rhondda
- Caerphilly
- Bridgend
- Neath
- Port Talbot
- Llanelli
- Carmarthen
- Haverfordwest
- Aberystwyth
- Bangor
- Caernarfon
- Llandudno
- Colwyn Bay
- Rhyl
- Mold
- Brecon
- Newtown
Common questions
Before you call anyone.
Including us. A good share of what gets reported as damp is a maintenance job costing a fraction of a specialist's quote.
Probably not, if the staining is above a metre, appears after heavy rain, sits below a window or beside a chimney, or the wall outside is covered in cracked cement render. Rising damp is real but uncommon, and a conductivity meter reads salt, foil-backed plasterboard and metal lath as enthusiastically as it reads water. That is why we test ground salts before anyone specifies an injected course.
Often yes, on a pre-1919 solid wall — but not on a whim and not all at once. Cement render on a stone wall traps moisture, and replacing it with a lime render lets the wall dry again. It is disruptive and it is not cheap, so it needs to be the conclusion of a survey rather than the opening bid. Sometimes the answer is simply to repair the cracks and fix the rainwater goods.
Report it in writing and keep the date. Under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 your landlord must keep the dwelling fit for human habitation throughout your occupation contract, and damp and mould growth is the first of the 29 matters the fitness regulations list. If you rent from a council or housing association, the WHQS timescales now apply as well. We also build DampCheck Wales, a free tool that helps you identify what you are looking at and report it properly, in writing and dated.
Typically 60 to 120 minutes on site for a flat or standard house, longer for a full building. You receive a written photographic report, room by room, with the diagnosis and the evidence behind it, then a schedule of works split into urgent, remedial and general maintenance — costed, so you can price it against anyone else's quote and hand the maintenance items to a joiner or roofer.
Get it diagnosed
Find out what's actually wrong with your wall.
Tell us what you're seeing. We'll tell you what it's likely to be, and what it will take to fix.