Damp and moisture meters
The path sits above the damp-proof course only beside the gulley, and the rest of the wall base is clear. Why should the damp note stay local to that gulley?
The damp note should stay local to that gulley because the bridging is local. The path sits above the damp-proof course only beside the gulley, and the rest of the wall base is clear. A high path at one point can bridge the course there. It does not describe the whole wall. The survey has recorded a local bridge. It has not found the path high elsewhere, and it has not turned one gulley into rising damp along the elevation. The note belongs where the path is high, which is beside that gulley.
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?
Bridging means ground or paving above the course, so moisture can step over the break the course was meant to make. Where the base is clear, that step is not available. Writing the whole wall as bridged would invent a defect the inspection did not see. A gulley is also a place where water concentrates, so the local note may be about the gulley and the path together, not about a failed course under the entire house. The survey should be read at the scale it was written.
Ask a builder to lower or cut back the path only where it bridges beside the gulley, and to check that gulley throws water away. Tell the solicitor the damp comment is local. Do not commission a whole-wall treatment on the back of one high patch of paving. The rest of the wall base was clear. Keep the note as tight as the defect.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Is the path above the damp-proof course only beside the gulley?
- Was the rest of the wall base clear of bridging?
- Have you kept the damp note local to that gulley?
What are the typical next steps?
- Keep the bridging note beside the gulley.
- Do not spread it along a wall base that was clear.
- Deal with the high path at that point, not the whole elevation.
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 gulley floods, does the whole house have rising damp?
Flooding at a gulley is water at that gulley. The path bridges the course only there, and the rest of the wall base is clear. The survey has not renamed a local bridge as house-wide rising damp. The note stays local. A blocked gulley is a gulley.
Can you ignore the bridge because it is only one spot?
You should not ignore it, and you should not inflate it. One spot above the course is still a bridge, and it can wet the wall beside the gulley. The rest being clear is why the note stays local. Local means deal with that gulley, not skip it and not repaint the whole house as the same defect.