Damp and moisture meters
Coastal render is fretting and salts sit in the surface. Why is that a coating note rather than heave of the footings?
It is a coating note because the salts and the fretting are in the surface of the render, not in a movement of the footings. Coastal render breaking down with salt in the face is a materials problem in the coat. Heave of the footings would be the ground lifting the wall, which this surface damage does not show. The survey has described the coating. It has not tested the soil and has not reported the footings as heaved.
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?
Salt crystallising in a render pore pushes the face off. Wind and rain on a coast keep feeding that cycle, so fretting can be widespread without a single footing having moved. Heave is read from the pattern of the building, and even then a soil investigation is what confirms it. This note does not contain that pattern and does not contain that test. Treating powdering render as heave skips the mechanism that is actually described, which is the coat.
Ask a contractor used to coastal render whether the coat needs cutting out and renewing, and keep the instruction on the coating. Tell the solicitor the survey has not called this heave of the footings. Do not start an insurance conversation about ground movement from salt in the surface. If a separate crack pattern suggests movement, it will have its own paragraph and should not be folded into this one.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Are the salts and the fretting in the render surface?
- Has heave of the footings been left unreported from this coating?
- Was any soil test left undone?
What are the typical next steps?
- Call this a coating note, not heave of the footings.
- Ask a render contractor about the fretting surface.
- Do not open a ground-movement claim from salt in the coat.
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 fretting is only on the sea face, is that heave?
A sea face fits salt and weather on the coating. It does not show footings lifting. The survey has described surface fretting and has not reported heave. One elevation of damaged render is still a coating note. Weathered coating is not ground movement.
Does new paint over the fretting clear the footings?
Paint covers the coat. It does not inspect the footings and it does not test the soil. The survey's point is the surface salts and the fretting. Covering them does not convert the note into heave, and it does not remove it.