Wilsons Damp Control
When a property is damp or has condensation a correct diagnosis is imperative to ensure appropriate treatment. This will prevent frustration and inconvenience and reduce repair costs.
Rising damp:
Often misdiagnosed, rising damp is regularly mistaken for penetrating damp or condensation. Rising damp occurs when groundwater travels upwards through porous building materials such as brick, sandstone or mortar by means of capillary action. It can be identified by a characteristic ‘tide mark’ and is the likely cause if skirting boards are decayed and plaster and paint is peeling around the lower area of the ground floor wall (gravitation ensures rising damp is unlikely to travel above 1.5 metres). There are many approaches to curing rising damp in existing buildings and a site inspection is key to the selection of an appropriate treatment.
Penetrating damp:
If a property has damp patches on the ceiling, walls or floor then it may be subject to penetrating damp. Rain penetration is most often associated with single skin walls but can also occur in cavity walls (e.g. porous stone sills or tracking via wall ties). Cracked brickwork, blown and perished pointing or render, blocked gutters and broken downpipes soon allow water into the building that can spread causing timber decay and damp plaster.
There are many approaches to curing penetrating damp and again a site inspection is necessary to determine an appropriate treatment.
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Condensation:
If walls are wet to touch, windows are foggy and there is black mould growth the likely cause is condensation. Please also note health issues relating to mould are well documented.
Condensation is often attributed to a lack of balance between heating and ventilation resulting in a humidity rise. By drying clothes on radiators, washing and cooking a family of 4 can produce 20 litres of water vapour every day. This vapour is held in the air while the home is heated but condenses to water (normally against windows and cold external walls) when the heating is off i.e. at night or in the daytime when the property is empty.
Typical remedies for condensation are increasing background heat and ensuring good ventilation especially in kitchens and bathrooms.
If there is concern about problems with condensation or damp in commercial or residential property, please don’t hesitate to contact us to arrange a site inspection.