checking for damp - damp meter/protimeter

[homeraway]

Victorian house - my family have lived in the house for many years and as such house has never had a survey of any kind.
We have not known of or found any visual signs of damp on ground floor walls.

As part of current renovation quite a lot of internal render/plasterwork has to be removed which is all fine, fairly usual for this age of property, most of it just simply falls off with a little help from a shovel.

Im just wondering if we should use a damp meter on the walls to see what damp levels might be and if we are likely to need to do damp proofing before renovating rooms - not all ground floor rooms are having the render/plaster removed.

I have read on here and other sites that the readings from these meters is not always conclusive of damp course braking down.

I guess just a little concerned we may be expecting damp when there just isnt any but would like to confirm things before getting walls re rendered and finished.

looking for advice on how to proceed.

thanks

 

[maltaron]

Unlikely that there will be a damp course. Forget the damp meter and chemical DPC cowboys. You have said that there is no sign of damp so don't try and invent some. When you replaster use lime plaster to allow the walls to breath and all should be OK

 

[homeraway]

yeah that is our first thought, if we cant see damp then we should be ok

there is a damp proof course as such its a tar layer that you can see but i guess thats limited in its performance.

I would keep well clear of the DPC cowboys for sure as most of work we are doing ourselves.
I know some years ago the adjoining semi had injection but I guess that was part of a survey / mortgage requirement when they bought it and its that that got us questioning our own comfort that we had no damp