Outbuildings and conservatories
The conservatory gutter discharges into the cavity at the house wall. What damp mechanism is that, as against a failed wall tie?
Not a wall-tie failure: the conservatory gutter discharging into the cavity is a damp path into the house wall. Rain from that gutter is being put into the cavity rather than carried away from it. That wetting can show inside as damp. It is a rainwater detail at the junction, not a diagnosis that the wall ties have failed. The survey can describe the discharge it could see. It should not be rewritten as cavity-tie corrosion because water is entering at that point.
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?
Wall-tie trouble is a different mechanism. It is about the ties in the cavity, often with a pattern of cracking, not about a gutter outlet aimed into the wall. Mixing the two sends the wrong trade to the wrong job. Here the thing to describe is the gutter from the conservatory and where it empties. If that outlet feeds the cavity, the path for water is plain enough to record without inventing a tie failure the inspection has not shown.
Photograph the outlet, the staining at the junction and any damp on the inner face, and keep those notes together. Ask a roofer or a builder who deals with rainwater goods to say where that gutter should discharge, in writing. Do not commission a wall-tie survey as if the gutter had already proved the ties. The home survey has named a damp path. It has not certified the ties, and it has not priced a replacement of them.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Where exactly does the conservatory gutter enter the cavity, as you saw it?
- Did you see tie-related cracking, or only this gutter discharge?
- Which damp marks should be read with the gutter, not as rising damp?
What are the typical next steps?
- Describe the gutter outlet into the cavity as the damp path.
- Do not relabel that discharge as a failed wall tie.
- Get a written note on where the gutter should discharge.
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Also asked about this
If the inner wall is stained, have the ties failed?
Not on that stain alone. Staining beside this outlet fits water from the gutter. It does not by itself prove the wall ties have failed.
Should the cavity be injected because the gutter points at it?
No. Injection is not the finding. The finding is a gutter discharging into the cavity. Deal with that path before you invent a damp treatment.