As it happens, I trust my builder and I know I'll be able to discuss this fully with him, so I'm hoping that I don't have a genuine case of rising damp and also that I'm not going to get clobbered with a bill for thousands of pounds.
Don't expect rising damp or floods in the cellar.
Recent projects in Mexico and Nova Scotia have used gravel-filled bags as foundations for straw-bale walls to minimize rising damp.
More than 10,000 council homes - branded ‘non-decent’ in a local authority report - are said to be suffering from defects including rising damp and structural weaknesses.
Yet for the past 20 years or more the building has steadily decayed, plagued by dry rot, a leaking roof, rising damp and vandalism.
Without the damp course the house, when completed, is not fit for human habitation because of rising damp.
A 75-year-old pensioner has been forced to sleep on a settee every night, as rising damp ravages through her council home, seeping from the walls and saturating her bed.
These days we are spoilt for choice with quality hotel accommodation, while the country's student population is much more likely to be concerned about broadband connections than rising damp in their rooms.
Borrowers should have a comprehensive structural survey carried out to minimise the risk of discovering rising damp or subsidence when it is too late.
Because only the piles - the posts they stand on - are in contact with the ground, rising damp is not a problem.
Cash is available as home repair assistance or as a renovation grant to repair dangerous electrical wires, collapsing ceilings and rising damp.
Sellers who hide the rising damp in their homes behind furniture or omit to mention that the shower leaks, will not be protected by the voetstoots clause in their sales contract.