Ground Level and Damp Questions Checklist

Walk each external wall in turn and note whether the ground beside it sits below the wall base, roughly level with it or noticeably higher.

Owners tend to look at the front elevation and forget the shaded side return, which is usually where ground has crept up most.

Describe the difference in your own terms, such as a clear step down, roughly flush or banked up against the wall, rather than putting a figure on it.

A comparative description is honest and useful, whereas an owner measurement is easily taken from the wrong reference point.

Where ground should sit against this wall is a judgement for a qualified professional and is not something to settle from outside.

Note where paving, a path or a driveway meets the wall, and watch during rain whether the water on it runs towards the building or away from it.

Which way a hard surface sheds water is visible after any downpour and is one of the details most often missed at this stage.

Record any border, raised bed, bark or gravel heaped against the wall, and note how far up the wall face the loose material reaches.

Loose material builds up gradually as it is topped up, and nobody remembers the level it started at.

Note anywhere decking, artificial grass, a bin platform or a store covers the ground beside the wall so the ground itself cannot be seen at all.

Covered ground hides the very thing that needs looking at, and what lies beneath is rarely known by anybody currently living there.

Write down how the sides of the building differ from one another, since the wall that stays wettest is often the one nobody walks past.

Damp problems tend to cluster on particular elevations, and the contrast between them is a strong lead for whoever investigates.

Locate every vent or air brick at low level and note whether each one is clear, partly covered or completely buried by ground or paving.

Vents are frequently lost beneath a new path or border, and whoever covered one seldom recorded having done so.

Note where planting, a bin, a store, firewood or stacked material sits directly in front of a vent or grating.

Obstruction of a vent is almost always incidental rather than deliberate, which is exactly why nobody notices it.

Record where a gully, drain grating or downpipe outlet sits close to a low-level opening, and photograph the two together.

Whether that arrangement matters is for a qualified drainage professional to assess, and any change to it belongs with them.

Describe the state of each grating you can see, including whether it is clogged with leaves, silt, moss or building debris.

A grating that has quietly filled up is one of the most useful observations an owner can make without touching anything.

Leave covers and gratings exactly where they are and photograph them in place rather than lifting anything to look underneath.

Lifting chamber covers and clearing drainage runs is work for a qualified drainage professional with the right equipment.

Note whether the property appears to have a ventilated floor void at all, and write down what you were told about it when you bought the place.

How a floor is built changes the whole conversation, and owner recollection is a useful lead even where it later proves wrong.

Photograph any band of staining, discolouration or tide mark on the outside wall and note how it sits relative to the ground beside it.

A band that follows the ground line reads quite differently from a patch beneath a gutter joint, and the photograph shows which it is.

Note where mortar looks eroded, crumbling or patched, and where brick, stone or render faces are blistering, flaking or coming away.

What that deterioration means, and whether it raises a structural question, is for a qualified professional to establish.

Record white powdery bloom, green algae, moss or lichen on the wall face, noting where each is worst and which side of the building it is on.

Growth marks where a surface stays damp longest, and its distribution is easier to read from photographs than from memory.

Look at the wall during and just after heavy rain and note how far water splashes back off the surface beside it.

Splash patterns only exist while it is raining, so nobody sees them unless somebody deliberately goes out to look.

Note where external paint or render is lifting, and whether the failure sits as a horizontal band, an isolated patch or a spreading area.

The shape of a failure is descriptive evidence a professional can interpret, whereas an owner conclusion about it rarely survives scrutiny.

Photograph each affected area from the same standing position every time, so changes can be compared rather than guessed at later.

Two pictures taken from different distances are almost impossible to compare, which wastes the effort of taking them.

Mark on a rough plan which internal walls show damp signs, roughly how high the affected area reaches, and whether it forms a patch, a band or a corner.

A marked plan lets somebody qualified compare inside and outside quickly, which is difficult from a written description alone.

Note the condition of skirtings, floor coverings and the junction where they meet the wall in each affected room.

The junction is where signs usually appear first, and it is normally hidden behind furniture that nobody thinks to move.

Record where a musty smell is noticeable, particularly in cupboards, under stairs and in rooms that are kept shut.

Smell is often the earliest sign an owner registers and the one least likely to be written down anywhere.

Note separately where condensation forms on glass and cold surfaces, and whether the damp marks sit in those same places or elsewhere.

Condensation and other forms of dampness look similar to an owner and are routinely confused, so recording them apart keeps the evidence usable.

Distinguishing between possible causes of dampness needs training and equipment and belongs with a suitably qualified professional.

Check whether each internal damp area lines up with anything outside, such as a gully, a downpipe, a raised border or a covered vent.

Alignment is a lead rather than an answer, but it is the observation a professional most often wishes an owner had made.

Note whether the marks darken during wet spells and fade in drier ones, or whether they look much the same regardless of the weather.

Whether that pattern points at one cause rather than another is for a qualified professional to determine, not for you to conclude.

List every external change you know of, including new paving, a re-laid path, added gravel, a new border, decking, a store or an extension.

A list written now is far more reliable than one assembled under pressure once somebody qualified starts asking questions.

Put those changes in the order they happened and note which of them came before the damp was first noticed.

Sequence is the single most useful thing an owner holds, because nobody else can reconstruct it.

Write down anything a previous owner or a neighbour recalls being done outside, marked clearly as their recollection rather than as fact.

Recollection is a lead worth following, and labelling it honestly stops it hardening into something it is not.

Note where a new hard surface was laid over an older one rather than replacing it, since the finished level ends up higher than it began.

Overlaying is quicker and less disruptive at the time, and the resulting level change beside the wall goes unrecorded almost every time.

Record where large planting, a climber or a hedge sits tight against a wall, and how much of the wall face they keep permanently shaded.

A wall face that never dries behaves differently from one that does, and the planting responsible is usually taken for granted.

Note any change to where roof water goes, including a moved downpipe, a water butt added, a gutter altered or an outlet blocked off.

Where roof water is directed is a drainage matter; ask a qualified drainage professional before anything about it is altered.

Record the weather in the period before each observation, distinguishing a single heavy downpour from a long unbroken wet spell.

The same wall reads as fine after a dry run of weather and alarming after a wet one, so context makes the record honest.

Write down how the affected rooms are heated and aired, including which windows are opened and which vents are kept closed.

These are facts only the household holds, and a professional will ask for them at the start rather than the end.

Note where washing is dried, whether extraction is used when cooking or bathing, and where that moisture appears to go.

Recording household habits plainly avoids the awkward middle of a visit where everybody is guessing at them.

Note which rooms are little used or kept closed, since signs often show there first and get discovered much later.

An unheated spare room is frequently where the earliest evidence sits, unseen because nobody goes in.

Record where furniture, storage or fitted units sit tight against an external wall, and whether they were there before the marks appeared.

Anything pressed against a cold wall changes what happens behind it, and the arrangement is rarely mentioned unless asked about.

Resist buying a meter and recording readings of your own, and note what you can see, smell and feel instead.

Moisture measurement and its interpretation need training and calibrated equipment and belong with a suitably qualified professional.

Date every observation and photograph, and keep them in one place rather than scattered across a phone, a notebook and memory.

Undated evidence cannot be compared with anything, which quietly removes most of its value.

Keep one sketch of the property showing where the ground is higher, where vents are, where gullies sit and where the internal marks appear.

A single drawing carrying all of it lets somebody see the relationships at once, which pages of notes rarely achieve.

Photograph the same spots when they look perfectly normal as well as when they look bad, so the comparison is genuine.

Records made only during bad spells make everything look permanent and remove the evidence that anything ever improved.

Gather any earlier reports, receipts or paperwork about damp work at the property and keep them with your notes, including the parts you disagree with.

Previous work explains why a wall looks as it does, and withholding awkward paperwork simply sends the next person down the same path.

Keep your own theory about the cause on a separate page from the observations, so the two are not confused when you hand the record over.

Attributing a cause is a professional judgement; presenting a theory as an observation can send an investigation the wrong way.

Ask a qualified professional what they want recorded before they attend, and what should be left untouched until then.

Finding out early what is missing avoids losing another wet spell to a gap nobody thought to mention.