Building Survey Checklist
Look at a property properly on a second viewing, so the questions you put to a surveyor or a seller are the right ones.
MB-10 2 pages
Trade job forms · TJ-11
Damp Survey and Moisture Reading Sheet
A free printable damp survey form — meter readings room by room with the height and surface of each, the visible signs, and the outside checks made.
Download Free · no sign-up
One page. Choose your paper size — both versions are laid out identically, so neither one gets shrunk to fit.
Print it and write on it
Fill it in type and save
The fillable versions have real form fields — open them in any PDF reader, type into them and save. Printing help.
What this sheet is for
Get every reading down with enough context to be useful later, so a diagnosis rests on what was measured rather than what was remembered.
Who it is for
Damp and timber surveyors, builders and property managers asked to look at a damp problem, and landlords recording what a surveyor found.
How to use it
- Write the meter, its mode and the day's conditions at the top before the first reading.
- Take one line per point: room, wall, height, the reading as shown, and what the surface looked like.
- Walk the outside and tick the checks that apply — the cause is usually there.
- Write your likely cause and what still needs investigating, and sketch the room on the back with each reading point marked.
What is on the sheet
One page, top to bottom:
Printed under the title: Moisture readings and visible signs, room by room, written down where they were taken on one visit.
Readings are your meter's, not ours. No scale is printed against the reading column: a reading only means something against that meter's own scale, its mode and the material it was pressed to. Write the meter and mode once at the top, each reading exactly as shown, and judge it from your meter's guidance and your own experience.
Write-on lines: Property · Date of survey · Surveyed by · Meter make & mode · Outside weather · Heating on? · Occupied / ventilated?
Readings — one line per point — the same wall at two heights is two lines
Table, 6 rows: Room · Wall / element · Height from floor · Reading · Surface · What you saw
Outside and around — tick what was seen; sketch the reading points on the back
- Ground level outside high against the wall
- Gutter, downpipe or hopper leaking or overflowing
- Render, pointing or brick face defective
- DPC missing, or bridged by path, soil or render
- Sub-floor vents blocked, buried or missing
- Condensation on glass; extractors absent or unused
Write-on lines: Likely cause(s) in your view · Further investigation needed
Questions
Why is there no figure for what counts as damp?
Because a moisture meter reading depends on the meter, its scale, the mode it is in and the material it is pressed against. A reading that is nothing on one wall is serious on another. The sheet records the reading exactly as shown; the judgement is yours, using your meter's guidance and your own experience.
Is this a report I can give the customer?
It is the site record the report is written from. A customer can have a copy, but the findings and any recommendation belong in a written report that explains what the readings mean.
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