Independent damp & timber surveys · All of Scotland
We read walls.
Then we tell you the truth about them.
Rising damp, penetrating damp, condensation and rot all leave different marks on a Scottish wall. Most are misdiagnosed by whoever is quoting for the treatment. We survey first, we don't sell chemicals, and the report is yours to act on.
- PCA qualified — CSRT, CSTDB
- Independent survey, no tie to a contractor
- Insurance-backed guarantees
- Reports accepted by lenders & solicitors
- Covering the whole of Scotland
Three problems, one symptom
Damp is a diagnosis, not a product.
A tide mark on a Glasgow tenement wall can be four different things. Injecting a chemical damp-proof course fixes exactly one of them. This is what we're 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 often a raised external ground level, a bridged DPC, or a blocked sub-floor vent — not a failed course.
Water crossing the wall from outside
Penetrating damp
The most common cause of a damp Scottish wall. Cracked harling, cement render trapping moisture in a lime-built wall, failed pointing, a leaking 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. It is a heating, ventilation and cold-bridging problem, and no chemical treatment will touch it. This is the category most often reported by tenants, and the one Awaab's Law is written around.
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, plate rot, sub-floor timbers, roof spaces and the hidden extent behind the plaster.
03 · SurveyHome Report retention
Where a Single Survey flags dampness and the lender holds back funds, we produce the specialist report that releases it.
04 · WorksDamp remedial works
Chemical DPC installation where it is genuinely warranted, salt-retardant re-plastering, lime plaster reinstatement, external repairs.
05 · WorksRot & woodworm treatment
Irrigation and masonry sterilisation, timber replacement and resin repair, targeted insecticidal treatment where an active infestation is confirmed.
06 · ComplianceLandlord damp & mould reports
Investigation reports written to satisfy the Repairing Standard and the October 2026 investigation duty, with a written summary for the tenant.
The law is changing
Awaab's Law reaches Scotland on 6 October 2026.
From that date the Investigation and Commencement of Repair (Scotland) Regulations 2026 give social and private landlords fixed, countable timescales for damp and mould. Ten working days is not long to find a qualified surveyor who is free.
Until the duties commence.
The 10 · 3 · 5 rule
- 10WORKING DAYS
Investigate
From the point the landlord becomes aware a property may be affected by damp or mould — by tenant report, inspection, or any other means.
- 3WORKING DAYS
Write to the tenant
A written summary of what the investigation found, due within three working days of the investigation being completed.
- 5WORKING DAYS
Start the work
Where the investigation concludes work is needed, it must commence within five working days of that conclusion.
If a timescale can't be met, the landlord must set out in writing why, and when they will comply. General guidance only — see the full note on 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 thousands of Scottish tenements ended up with an injected damp-proof course they never needed, in walls where the real fault was a cracked downpipe two floors up.
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.
Survey fees start at — for a single property inspection. Confirmed in writing before we attend, along with your 14-day cancellation rights where the contract is agreed at your home.
Coverage
The whole country, and we know what it's built from.
Blonde sandstone tenements in Glasgow, rubble-cored walls in the Borders, granite in Aberdeen, harled solid walls up the west coast where it rains 200 days a year. The building stock changes every fifty miles and so does the failure mode.
- Glasgow
- Edinburgh
- Aberdeen
- Dundee
- Inverness
- Stirling
- Perth
- Paisley
- Falkirk
- Ayr
- Kilmarnock
- Dunfermline
- Kirkcaldy
- Livingston
- Hamilton
- Greenock
- Oban
- Fort William
- Elgin
- Dumfries
- Galashiels
- Isle of Skye
Common questions
Before you call anyone.
Including us. Half of what gets reported as damp is a maintenance job that costs a fraction of a specialist's quote.
Almost certainly not, if the staining is above a metre, appears after heavy rain, sits below a window or beside a chimney breast, or shows as black spot growth in a corner. True rising damp is limited, stops at a defined tide line and brings hygroscopic salts with it. We test for those salts rather than relying on a meter reading alone — a protein meter reads conductivity, and salt, foil-backed plasterboard and metal lath all read as "damp".
The Single Survey in your Home Report may note dampness and recommend a specialist report. Lenders frequently apply a retention until that report is produced. A specialist damp and timber report with a costed schedule is normally what releases it, and it is far cheaper to hold that report before the offer than to renegotiate after it.
Very common, and it changes who pays. Where the defect is in a shared roof, gable, close or downpipe, repairs are usually decided and apportioned under the title deeds, or under the Tenement Management Scheme in the Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004 where the deeds are silent or incomplete. Our report identifies the defect and its location precisely, which is what your factor or the other owners will need before anyone agrees to pay.
Report it in writing and keep the date. Your landlord already has duties under the Repairing Standard and the Tolerable Standard, and from 6 October 2026 there are fixed timescales for investigating damp and mould. If the landlord does not comply you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber). Free independent advice is available from Shelter Scotland and Citizens Advice Scotland — we survey buildings, we are not a tenancy advice service.
Typically 60 to 120 minutes on site for a flat or standard house, longer for a full building. You receive a written report within — working days: moisture readings plotted room by room, photographs of every defect, the diagnosis with our reasoning, and a schedule of works separated into what is urgent, what is remedial and what is maintenance you can hand to a joiner or roofer.
Find out what's actually wrong.
Tell us what you're seeing. Five questions, no phone call until you want one.
Surveys
What a proper survey
actually involves.
Ninety minutes, a moisture meter, a hygrometer, a borescope, a ladder, and someone who has cut open enough Scottish walls to know what they're 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. This is what distinguishes condensation from moisture arriving through the fabric, and it is the measurement most "free surveys" skip entirely.
On site
External defect inspection
Ground levels against the wall, air brick and sub-floor ventilation, pointing and harling condition, rainwater goods, chimney heads and flashings, and any cement render sitting on a wall that was built to breathe.
On site
Timber and sub-floor
Joist ends where they bear into damp masonry, wall plates, lintels and bearings, plus a lifted board or borescope inspection of the solum 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 often the single fact that saves a client several thousand pounds.
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.
Damp
Telling them apart.
The pattern, the height, the timing and the salts. Four pieces of evidence that between them account for nearly every damp wall in Scotland.
Diagnosis
Rising damp
- Defined horizontal tide line, typically 0.5–1.2 m
- Hygroscopic salts present in the plaster
- Constant through the year rather than after rain
- Often traced to raised external ground, a bridged or rendered-over DPC, or a blocked sub-floor vent
Where a chemical DPC is genuinely warranted we install one and re-plaster to a salt-retardant specification. Where it isn't, we say so.
Diagnosis
Penetrating damp
- Localised patch, any height, worst after driving rain
- Traceable to a defect: cracked harling, open joints, failed pointing, blocked or split downpipe, slipped slate, chimney flashing
- Cement render or plastic paint on a lime-built wall, holding water in
- Exposed west-coast elevations taking the brunt of it
The fix is nearly always building repair rather than chemical treatment — which is why our report tells you what to instruct, not what to buy from us.
Diagnosis
Condensation & mould
- Black spot growth in corners, on cold reveals, behind furniture and inside wardrobes on external walls
- Worst in winter, worst in bedrooms and bathrooms
- Driven by cold surfaces, moisture production and too little ventilation
- Frequently made worse by sealing up an old building
We measure surface temperatures and humidity, identify the cold bridges, and specify ventilation and heating improvements. No chemical treatment resolves condensation.
Diagnosis
Plumbing & defect leaks
- Sharp, contained, often below a bathroom or kitchen
- Flat roofs, box gutters, valley gutters and shared close roofs
- Ingress from the flat above in tenement property
- Frequently mislabelled as rising damp because it presents low down
Identifying the true source matters commercially as well as technically: it determines whether the cost sits with you, a neighbour, a factor or an insurer.
Timber decay
Rot doesn't stop
where you can see it.
Dry rot is the one Scottish tenements are notorious for, and the one that costs the most when it is found late. Wet rot is more common and far more manageable. Woodworm is usually historic and usually over-treated.
Serpula lacrymans
Dry rot
Rust-red spore dust, cuboidal cracking across the grain, grey-white mycelium and strands that can travel through masonry and behind plaster to reach dry timber several rooms away. It needs a persistent water source — find and stop that first, or the treatment is decoration.
We establish the full extent by opening up, cut back to sound timber with an agreed margin, sterilise the masonry where justified, and specify the building repair that removes the moisture.
Coniophora and others
Wet rot
Darkened, soft, stringy timber confined to the wet area. Joist ends built into a damp gable, window cills, sub-floor plates, the bottom of a door frame. Contained, predictable, and resolved by stopping the water and replacing or resin-repairing the affected timber.
Anobium punctatum
Woodworm
Common furniture beetle in damp sub-floor softwood. The question is never "are there holes" — it is whether the infestation is active, which we assess by frass, bore hole condition and timber moisture content. Historic infestation in dry timber needs no chemical treatment at all.
Where we work
What we find, where.
Scottish building stock is regional. So is the way it fails.
Blonde and red sandstone tenements
Rubble-cored walls with an ashlar face, shared closes and back courts. Failed common downpipes, defective bay window roofs, and cement pointing trapping water in walls built for lime. Dry rot in bay corners and close ceilings is the recurring find.
Ashlar, basements and drying greens
Sunken basement and lower-ground flats with high external ground levels and poor solum ventilation. Chimney head and skew failures on tall stacks. Retentions on Home Reports are common in the older tenement stock.
Granite
Dense, unforgiving walls where the moisture sits at the joints. Pointing failure, harling breakdown on rear elevations and driven rain on exposed coastal frontages. Condensation is severe where solid granite meets modern airtightness.
Harled solid walls, high exposure
Rainfall and wind-driven saturation dominate. Harling cracks, breather membranes and vent paths matter more than any chemical treatment. We plan island and west coast work in batches — ask about scheduling.
Mixed stock
Sandstone terraces alongside interwar and post-war cavity housing, where the failure is usually a bridged cavity, debris on wall ties, or an added conservatory raising ground levels above the DPC.
Rubble walls and red sandstone
Thick, wide-jointed rubble walls that hold water for weeks after a wet spell, and inappropriate modern renders that have sealed them. Sub-floor rot in older cottages with earth or slab-covered solums.
Towns we cover
- Glasgow
- Edinburgh
- Aberdeen
- Dundee
- Inverness
- Stirling
- Perth
- Paisley
- East Kilbride
- Falkirk
- Ayr
- Kilmarnock
- Dunfermline
- Kirkcaldy
- Livingston
- Hamilton
- Motherwell
- Greenock
- Oban
- Fort William
- Elgin
- Peterhead
- Dumfries
- Galashiels
- Stranraer
- Isle of Skye
Landlords, agents, factors & housing associations
Ten working days, starting 6 October 2026.
Scotland's version of Awaab's Law is made by the Investigation and Commencement of Repair (Scotland) Regulations 2026, approved by the Scottish Parliament in March 2026 and in force from 6 October 2026. Unlike the first phase in England, it applies to the private rented sector as well as social housing.
- 10WORKING DAYS
Complete an investigation
Runs from the moment you become aware the property is or may be affected by damp or mould — whether that comes from a tenant report, your own inspection, or any other means.
- 3WORKING DAYS
Issue a written summary to the tenant
Setting out what the investigation found. Due within three working days of the investigation being completed.
- 5WORKING DAYS
Commence any necessary work
Where the investigation concludes that work is required to make the property free of damp and mould, that work must start within five working days of the conclusion being reached.
Where circumstances outwith your control prevent compliance, you must set out in writing to the tenant why, and the timescale in which you expect to comply. Where the damp or mould is not the result of a building defect, landlords are expected to work with tenants and signpost appropriate advice and guidance.
The practical problem
Ten working days is a diary problem, not a legal one.
Every landlord and agent in Scotland is subject to the same clock from the same date, and there is a finite number of PCA-qualified damp and timber surveyors in the country. In October, the ones with capacity will be the ones people booked in August.
Get on the list before October
A standing arrangement for landlords, agents and factors: a named response window for damp and mould investigations, a report format written to evidence the investigation duty, and a plain-English written summary you can pass straight to the tenant.
No retainer for portfolios under — properties. Priced per inspection, with agreed rates fixed for twelve months.
The wider legal picture
What already applied
before October.
The new timescales sit on top of duties that have been in force for years. Damp and mould were never optional.
Under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006, a private rented property must be wind and watertight and in all other respects reasonably fit for human habitation, at the start of the tenancy and throughout it. The 2026 regulations amend the standard so that a property must be substantially free from damp and mould, and add the investigation and commencement timescales above.
Enforcement is through the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber). The Tribunal can make a Repairing Standard Enforcement Order, and can make a rent relief order reducing the rent payable. Failure to comply with an enforcement order is a serious matter for a registered landlord.
Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 · Investigation and Commencement of Repair (Scotland) Regulations 2026
The Tolerable Standard under the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 is the minimum condition below which a house is not fit to live in. It includes being substantially free from rising damp and penetrating damp. It applies across tenures and is the standard local authorities use when taking action on individual houses.
Housing (Scotland) Act 1987, s.86
Scottish secure tenants have a statutory right to have certain small urgent repairs, costing under £350, carried out within set timescales — commonly 1, 3 or 7 working days depending on the repair — with compensation payable where the landlord misses the deadline and the tenant can instruct a second contractor from the landlord's list.
The scheme was not written around damp and mould specifically, and most damp remediation falls outside it on cost. It matters here mainly because the associated defects — a blocked drain, a leaking pipe, an unsafe or defective vent — often do qualify.
Scottish Secure Tenants (Right to Repair) Regulations 2002
In tenement property the defect causing damp is frequently in shared fabric: the roof, a gable, the close, a common downpipe. Who decides, and who pays, is governed first by the title deeds and, where the deeds are silent or make no provision, by the Tenement Management Scheme in the Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004 — which allows a majority of owners to make a scheme decision on necessary maintenance to scheme property.
A landlord's repairing duty does not evaporate because the defect is common property. Our reports locate the defect precisely, which is what factors and other owners need before agreeing to fund a repair.
Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004
Social landlords are additionally answerable to the Scottish Housing Regulator and report against the Scottish Social Housing Charter and the Scottish Housing Quality Standard. The 2026 duties add fixed, auditable timescales to what was previously governed by internal repairs policies, so investigation records, dated written summaries and evidence of work commencing become the compliance trail.
Where a Single Survey records dampness, a lender may hold a retention until a specialist report is produced. This affects landlords buying and selling stock as much as it affects homeowners. A dated specialist report with a costed schedule of works is normally what releases the funds.
Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 our services must be carried out with reasonable care and skill, within a reasonable time, for a reasonable price where none has been agreed. Where a contract is agreed at your home rather than at our premises, the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 give you a 14-day right to cancel, and we will give you that notice in writing before you sign anything.
Note also that Scotland's prescriptive period differs from England's: under the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973 most contractual obligations prescribe after five years, not six. It is worth knowing where guarantees and defect claims are concerned.
This page summarises Scottish housing law as we understand it for the purposes of explaining our survey work. It is not a substitute for legal advice on your circumstances. Verify against the current legislation at legislation.gov.uk, or take independent advice.
LAST REVIEWED — [DATE] · PREPARED BY — [NAME] · NEXT REVIEW — [DATE]
About
Qualified, insured,
and not selling you anything.
[Company background — who you are, how long in the trade, what you did before. Two or three short paragraphs, first person plural, no marketing language. Mention the qualifications by name and the year you got them.]
[Why you set the business up as independent survey first. This is the differentiator on the whole site — say it in your own words here.]
CSRT
Certificated Surveyor in Remedial Treatment — the Property Care Association's core damp and timber surveying qualification.
CSTDB
Certificated Surveyor of Timber Decay in Buildings, covering fungal decay and wood-boring insect identification.
Insurance
—. Certificates available on request.
Guarantees
Long-term guarantees on remedial works, with independent insurance backing available so the guarantee survives the company.
Contact
Talk to a surveyor.
Not a call centre and not a salesperson. If it's a five-minute question, ask it.
Request a survey
Five questions.
Tell us what you're actually seeing and we'll tell you what it's likely to be before anyone visits.
Who are you?
It changes which report you need.
What sort of building?
Age matters more than anything else here.
Roughly when was it built?
What are you seeing?
Select everything that applies. This is the part that does the work.
Where, and how urgent?
Postcode so we can confirm coverage and travel.
Where do we send the report?
Received.
Thanks — we'll come back to you within — hours with a fee, a date, and an honest view on whether you need a survey at all.
Prefer to speak to someone? Call a surveyor direct.