The Person Behind the Survey
Why I Do This Differently
Most people meet a damp surveyor on the worst day of their property journey — mid-purchase, mid-dispute, or staring at a wall that keeps coming back wet no matter what they spend. Richard Bull built Damp Detectives Surveys around a simple idea: you deserve someone in that moment whose only job is to tell you the truth.
No commission. No treatments to sell. No incentive to make your damp sound worse than it is. Just calibrated equipment, thermal imaging, and an honest answer you can act on.
The Day That Changed Everything
In November 2017 — just two months after leaving 16 years working across manufacturing, distribution, and waste disposal industries — Richard suffered a spontaneous pneumothorax: a collapsed lung. It happened on the same day his youngest daughter was born. He spent the next 10 days in hospital instead of at home with his new family.
The cause was never established; spontaneous pneumothorax often isn’t. But the timing made an impression. It is hard to think of a more direct lesson in why this work matters. Mould and damp aren’t just cosmetic problems or a haggling point in a house sale — they are a genuine health issue. That experience is exactly why every survey treats air quality and microbial risk as seriously as the bricks and mortar. When Richard tells a family their home is making them ill, he isn’t reading from a script. He has lived it.
Independent Means Independent
The damp industry runs on a quiet conflict of interest. The company offering you a “free survey” is usually the same company that profits from the treatment it recommends — so the worse your damp sounds, the better their day goes. Richard works on a fixed fee and sells no remedial work whatsoever. The diagnosis is the product. Around 80% of so-called “rising damp” cases he sees turn out to be condensation, a leak, or an external defect — problems with far cheaper, simpler fixes than chemical injection or tanking.
A Specialist in Older Buildings
Some of the worst damage Richard sees isn’t caused by damp at all — it’s caused by the “cure.” Cement renders, chemical DPCs and tanking can be actively harmful to period properties, which were built to breathe. As a member of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings and a holder of the Level 3 Award in Energy Efficiency in Older & Traditional Buildings, Richard understands how traditional construction is meant to handle moisture — and recommends repairs that work with a building, not against it.
The Credentials Behind Every Report
Richard’s qualifications span moisture, microbiology, environmental health and traditional buildings — a combination that exceeds the standard expected in independent damp surveying:
- MISSE — Member of the Independent Specialist Surveyors & Engineers
- ACIEH — Associate of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health
- ABBE Level 3 DMCB — Award in Damp, Mould & Condensation in Buildings
- IICRC WRT & AMRT — Water Restoration & Applied Microbial Remediation
- City & Guilds Level 3 — Professional Mould Remediation (the UK’s highest vocational mould qualification)
- Level 3 — Energy Efficiency in Older & Traditional Buildings
- SPAB Member — Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings
One Surveyor, Start to Finish
Book with Damp Detectives and you deal with Richard from the first phone call to the final report — not a call centre, not whoever happens to be free that week. The same qualified, independent surveyor, every visit. That continuity is how nothing gets lost between the inspection and the advice you actually rely on.
📞 07983 550 662
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