I got a call from an old lady in Burton this week. She was panicking about rising damp on her kitchen wall so I called in on the way back from Redditch.

I find that ‘rising damp’ is hardly ever the real thing; it’s usually a local problem like a leaking rainwater pipe or gutter.
So I checked outside: a loose rainwater pipe and kitchen waste pipes were possible culprits. Then I went inside and removed the plinth from her kitchen cupboards and found a leaking dishwasher cold water feed pipe.  She didn’t even use the dishwasher but it was still connected and the pipe had split. 

That was the culprit.  It cost her a cup of tea and saved her the cost and disruption of a damp-proofing specialist.