buying a property, surveyor thinks ground floor joists may rest directly onto the brick walls without any damp membranes being inserted between and which may have led to rotting of the timber ends.

This is very likely, what age is the property?, Victorian properties had timber suspended floors to the lounge and parlor areas which were generally placed directly on the internal brickwork, however in a lot of cases they were placed on slate. where abouts are you? regards gary.

If the joist ends have rotted, you will need to either bolt on new timber or renew, depending how bad they are, give the ends of the new timbers a coat of Deep Kill wood preservative paste and wrap ends in dpc. Might be a good idea while your at it, to fit some insulation between joists and check all the air vents are clear. As for checking and urgent response, you need to place this in the Post a Job section, on this site.

Hi Would help if you said the area that you live in...:)