Basements and cellars
A former coal hole in the cellar wall is unsealed and daylight shows. What weather and what vermin path is that opening?
That unsealed coal hole is both a weather path and a vermin path into the cellar. Daylight shows through it, so the opening runs to the outside, and rain, blown rain and debris can use the same hole a coal chute once used. The survey has recorded an unsealed former coal hole with daylight at it. It has not measured how much water enters, has not found any animal, and has not decided that every damp mark in the cellar comes from this hole. The opening is the path. The rest of the cellar was not pinned on it alone.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
What is the fuller explanation?
A coal hole is a former delivery opening, often low in a cellar wall or under the pavement, and it was not meant to stay open once the chute went out of use. Left unsealed, it is simply a hole. Weather comes in, and so does anything small enough to pass. Daylight is the evidence the survey could use without instruments. It shows a continuous void to the air. It has named the path the hole creates.
Tell the solicitor there is an unsealed coal hole admitting daylight, and ask who is responsible for the wall or the pavement it passes through. Closing it is a building job with its own damp and air consequences, and the survey has not specified that job. Do not assume every mark in the cellar is this hole, and do not ignore the hole because other damp might exist. The note is the opening. A later look can separate the paths.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Where is the former coal hole, and was daylight visible through it?
- Did you record it as an unsealed weather and vermin path?
- Have you avoided blaming every cellar mark on this opening alone?
What are the typical next steps?
- Treat the open coal hole as a weather and vermin path.
- Ask the solicitor who is responsible for closing that opening.
- Do not read the note as a full account of all cellar damp.
Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.
Also asked about this
If the cellar floor was dry on the day, has the path gone?
No. A dry floor on one visit does not close a hole that still shows daylight. The visit was not timed to rain. The survey recorded an unsealed coal hole, not a dry certificate for the cellar. The weather path and the vermin path remain while that opening stays open.
Does daylight mean the coal hole can wait until other works?
Daylight only proves the hole is open. The survey has not called it safe to leave, and it has not ranked it against other damp in the cellar. An open chute is still a path for weather and for vermin. Leaving it is a choice you may make. It is not a finding the report has made.