Damp and moisture meters
A pin meter was pushed into a salt band above a skirting and it screamed. Why can hygroscopic salts alone drive that kind of reading?
Hygroscopic salts alone can drive that screaming reading, because they hold moisture in the plaster the pins touch. A pin meter pushed into a salt band above a skirting often shouts where the salts are, even when no liquid leak is arriving on the day. The survey has recorded a high reading in a salt band. It has not, from that reading alone, decided that water is rising, that a pipe is leaking, or that the wall needs a new damp-proof course.
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?
The salts take moisture out of room air and keep it in the surface. The pins measure that moisture in the plaster, not a pipe and not a water table. A band of salts above a skirting is a common place for this, because salts left by old wetting stay after the original water has gone. The meter cannot tell those salts from a live leak. The surveyor's job here is to say where the pins were pushed, not to let the noise of the meter choose a cause.
Ask the surveyor to keep the salt band and the high reading together, and not to let a lender read the number as proof of rising damp. If you need a cause, a damp specialist has to separate salts from a live source, which this meter push has not done. Do not commission an injection on the strength of the scream. The survey has not decided that treatment.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Was the high reading taken in the salt band above the skirting?
- Can salts alone account for that reading without a live leak?
- Did you avoid diagnosing rising damp from the meter alone?
What are the typical next steps?
- Keep the high reading tied to the salt band.
- Do not treat the meter scream as proof of rising damp.
- Separate salts from a live leak only with a further investigation.
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 skirting is stained, must water be rising now?
Not from the stain alone. A stain can be left by older wetting, and salts can keep the plaster damp to a meter. The survey has not shown a live rise of water from that one push of the pins.
Should the plaster be hacked off because the meter screamed?
No. The survey has not instructed that. Hacking plaster off is not the finding. The finding is a high reading in a salt band, which salts alone can produce. Leave the plaster in place. A loud reading is not an instruction to strip the wall.