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.