Damp and moisture meters
The bricks have spalled in a band under a leaking gutter, and the mortar joints are still standing. Is that the same defect as a crack through the wall?
No. Spalled bricks in a band under a leaking gutter, with the mortar joints still standing, are not the same defect as a crack through the wall. The survey has recorded broken brick faces under that gutter. It has not decided that the wall is split, and it has not folded the two into one finding. Spalling is the face of the brick coming away while the joints stay proud. A crack through the wall is a split in the masonry. The leak explains a wet band. It does not, on its own, show that the wall has moved.
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?
Water from a leaking gutter soaks the same band of brick again and again. In frost that wet face breaks off, which is why the damage sits in a strip and the mortar, being denser, is left standing. That is a wetting and frost pattern under one gutter, not a fracture running through the thickness of the wall. The survey can describe the band, the proud joints and the leak it could see. It cannot turn a spalled face into a structural crack that was not there.
Photograph the gutter outlet, the spalled band and any stain, and keep those three together when you speak to a bricklayer. Ask for a written note on the gutter and on whether any brick needs cutting out, as two jobs. Tell the solicitor the survey has separated a leak-damaged face from a crack through the wall. Do not let a lender form merge them into one movement defect the inspection did not record.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Where does the spalled band sit relative to the leaking gutter?
- Did you see a crack through the wall, or only lost brick faces and standing joints?
- Have you kept the gutter leak as its own finding, separate from movement?
What are the typical next steps?
- Keep the spalled band and the leaking gutter as one damp note.
- Do not relabel standing mortar and lost faces as a crack through the wall.
- Ask a bricklayer to separate gutter repair from any brick repair, in writing.
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 gutter is mended, do the spalled faces knit back?
No. Mending the gutter stops fresh soaking of that band. It does not put the lost brick face back. The survey has recorded the damage already there, and it has not said the faces will heal on their own. The survey stops at the spalled brick band and does not add any further conclusion.
Should the proud mortar be taken as proof the wall is sound behind?
No. Joints that still stand show the mortar has outlasted the brick face in that band. They do not prove the brick behind the spall is intact, and the survey did not cut a brick out to look. Nothing in this visit settles the spalled brick band beyond the lines already set out.