Condition ratings
A moisture meter read high on a solid kitchen floor that shows no stain. Is that floor rating 3 for rising damp?
No. A high moisture-meter reading on a solid kitchen floor with no stain is not, by itself, rating 3 for rising damp. The meter is a reading taken on one day. The floor surface showed no mark. Rising damp is a diagnosis the surveyor must actually make in words, and a condition rating is a separate choice. Do not promote a figure into the top rating on your own.
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 moisture meter is an instrument the surveyor may use as an aid. A high figure on a solid kitchen floor, with no stain, no salt and no tide mark described, is a figure. It is not automatically rising damp, and it is not automatically rating 3. Rating 3 means the element is serious, urgent, or both, and it is the point at which you get written quotations before legal commitment. The surveyor has to say that about this floor. If they have not, you cannot borrow the definition. Rating 1 would mean no repair is currently needed to the floor they could see. A high reading may sit beside that in the prose without changing it, or it may lead them to rating 2 if they think some repair is needed but it is not urgent.
Solid floors hide the slab and any membrane. Concealed construction is not guaranteed sound because the surface looked clean, and a meter does not open the floor. The what to do now note advises you. It does not invoice the seller for a new floor because a number on a meter was high. Do not add the words rising damp if the report did not use them. Ask what the reading means in their judgement, which element it belongs to, and whether they have given that element a rating at all. A reading without a rating is not a rating.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Did you diagnose rising damp, or only record a high reading?
- What condition rating, if any, did this kitchen floor receive?
- Was the surface unstained everywhere you tested, or only where you noted it?
What are the typical next steps?
- Do not convert the meter figure into rating 3 yourself.
- Ask the surveyor what the reading means for this floor.
- Keep rising damp out of your note unless they used those words.
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
Can a high reading and rating 1 sit in the same section?
Yes, if they explain the floor needs no repair now and the figure is not, in their view, a defect. Ask them to say that plainly.
Does a solid floor reading apply to the walls?
No. A floor reading is the floor. Wall damp, if any, is a different paragraph.