Water damage
Moisture inspection and leak tracing
Finding where the water is actually coming from and how far it has travelled, written down, before anybody quotes a repair. Including — and this is the part that makes the rest of it trustworthy — what we could not reach.
A great many damp problems are repaired in the wrong place. A stain appears on a ceiling, somebody repairs the pipe above the stain, and six weeks later the stain comes back — because water runs along a joist before it drips, and the drip is the end of the journey rather than the start of it.
A moisture survey is the work of establishing where the water enters, what route it takes, and what it has already affected. It is deliberately a separate paid piece of work rather than a free sales visit, because a survey whose findings determine the size of the job the surveyor wants to sell is not a survey.
What the instruments can and cannot do
A pin meter measures resistance between two probes driven into a material, which gives a genuine moisture content for timber and a useful comparative figure for most else. A pinless meter reads a shallow depth without damaging the surface, which is how a wall is swept quickly. A thermal camera does not see moisture at all — it sees temperature, and wet materials are usually cooler because they are evaporating. That is an inference, and a cold draught or a missing piece of insulation reads much the same.
So the camera finds candidates and the meter confirms them. Anybody who shows you a thermal image as proof of a leak, with no meter reading beside it, is showing you a picture of a temperature.
None of it sees through a solid wall to a pipe. Where the route genuinely cannot be established without opening something, we say so and we tell you what we would open and why, rather than guessing and calling it a diagnosis.
The report says what we could not reach
Every survey has a limitations section, and on an occupied house it is never empty: a fitted kitchen we were not going to dismantle, a boarded loft, a room that was locked, a floor covering we were asked not to lift.
That section is the part that makes the rest of the report worth having. A survey with no limitations is either describing a building with no walls or is not telling you something. When you read anybody's damp report — ours or somebody else's — read that part first.
What we will not do with it
We will not use a moisture survey as a mould assessment. Those are different pieces of work under different rules, and in New York the company that assesses mould may not remediate the same project. Finding water is not assessing mould, which is why we do the water half at no charge on a remediation job and why we will still ask you to appoint an independent assessor for the other half.
And we will not tell you a building is dry, safe or free of anything. The report records what was measured, where, on what date, with which instrument, and what could not be reached. That is a document somebody else can check. A certificate is not.
Included as standard
What the job actually includes
A full meter sweep of the affected area
Pinless survey to find it, pin readings to confirm it, with reference readings from unaffected areas.
Thermal imaging where it helps
Used to find candidates for the meter rather than presented as evidence on its own.
Source tracing
Establishing where the water enters and what route it takes, not merely where it emerges.
A written report the same week
Findings, readings, photographs, and a plain statement of what we could not reach.
A recommendation you can act on without us
Including when the recommendation is that no work is needed, which happens more often than this trade admits.
The fee credited against the work
In full, if you go ahead with us. The report is yours either way.
When to call us
Signs this is the job you need
- A stain that returns after somebody has already repaired the pipe above it
- Damp low on a wall with no obvious plumbing anywhere near it
- A musty smell in one room that nobody can locate
- Paint failing repeatedly in the same patch after repeated redecoration
- A water meter that moves overnight with everything in the house turned off
- Two contractors who have given you two entirely different explanations
Moisture inspection and leak tracing — what it costs
- Written survey of a one- or two-family house. Credited in full against the work.$385
This is the range this job actually lands in, not a headline figure. The low end is a straightforward version of the work; the high end is one with a hard access problem, an old service, or something that has to be opened up before anybody can be certain. We tell you which one you have after we have looked, and the written quote says where the price could still move and why.
Questions we are actually asked
Moisture inspection — frequently asked
Why is this not free when your emergency assessment is?
Because they are different pieces of work. The emergency assessment scopes an obvious loss so we can start, and it is free. A moisture survey is an investigation that produces a document you could hand to somebody else — including to a contractor who is not us. Charging for it is what keeps its findings independent of what we would like to sell you.
Do you need to make holes in my wall?
Sometimes, and never without asking. Most surveys are completed without breaking anything. Where the route genuinely cannot be established otherwise we will tell you where we want to open, how big it is, and what we expect to find, and you decide. A small inspection hole in the right place is considerably cheaper than a repair in the wrong one.
Can you tell me if it is mould?
We can tell you what we can see and where the water is. We will not write you a mould assessment, because in New York the company that assesses mould cannot remediate the same project, and we would rather be able to do the remediation properly than sell you a report. If you need an assessment we will tell you to appoint an independent licensed assessor.
Related work
Often needed alongside this
Water damage restoration
The whole job from the first hour to the last moisture reading — extraction, drying, and the repairs that put the room back.
$1,800 – $9,400
Structural drying
Air movers, dehumidifiers and daily readings until the materials reach dry standard — not until a promised day arrives.
$1,400 – $4,600
Finding the water
Mould is a symptom. If the water is still arriving, remediation is a very expensive way of waiting.
No charge
Ceiling damage
The stain spreading from the light fitting, what is above it, and how much of the ceiling actually has to come down.
$850 – $4,800Somebody who does the work will come and look
Book a visit
Telephone and you will get somebody on this crew rather than a call centre, at any hour. The emergency assessment is free inside our service area and you keep the written findings whether or not you use us. If what you describe will keep until the morning, we will tell you that instead of sending a van.