How Can You Stop Damp in Your House?
Many individuals have had damp in their houses, and it is never a pleasant experience. Damp can completely alter the experience of living in your own home through its appearance, odour and health-related concerns.
Damp can cause significant structural damage to your building in addition to destroying your walls, plaster, furniture, décor, and clothes.
It also has a terrible appearance and musty smell. A moist environment and airborne mould spores are hazardous for your health as they can aggravate respiratory disorders and skin conditions such as eczema.
Maintain a Comfortable Environment
Damp develop in locations where the temperature fluctuates.
You enhance your chances of developing damp by turning your heat on and off on a regular basis, enabling hot and cold air to flow. Experts advise that you maintain a steady temperature within your home, especially when your home has central heating.
It’s also crucial not to leave some rooms warm while others remain unheated, as this will exacerbate the problem. Opening the windows to let warm air out also helps avoid damp, which may seem counter-intuitive to you at first.
Minimise Moisture
You need to make sure that your property is exposed to minimal moisture as much as possible. Below are some things you can do to help with this:
- Keep your trickle vents open if your windows have them.
- Close the door to prevent damp air from entering neighbouring rooms.
- Always use the extractor fan or open window frames when showering or cooking to avoid damp patches.
- Avoid using paraffin or other bottled gas heaters since they are hazardous and produce a lot of water vapour.
- While cooking, keep the lids on the saucepans.
- Dry your clothes outside, in a room with a window, or tumble dry.
- Install cavity wall insulation if your house has no damp-proof membrane.
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Proper Ventilation
In chilly weather, it’s typical to leave windows shut, leaving water with nowhere to go. However, showers, baths, tumble drying, steam from a boiling kettle releasing from food, and excess moisture in the air will condense on the coldest windows or walls.
After a bath, open the bathroom windows and the kitchen and home windows to allow a fresh breeze to come in, allowing wet/moist air or moisture to pass through the window and not lodge in fixtures or walls, causing unwanted condensation mould.
If your rooms are without windows, make sure to open all of the ventilation vents and use fans in those rooms to get rid of damp. For regions with high moisture levels and no windows, constant ventilation is essential to avoid damp formation, especially on cold surfaces.
Wipe Mould from Furniture and Walls
In the morning, wipe out condensation from windows and other areas with a dry towel and open a window for a few minutes. Rather than drying the cloth on a radiator, wring it out in the sink.
Wipe away any black mould specks with a mild bleach solution or an anti-fungal spray. These may be found in most supermarkets. In the winter, you may need to do this at least twice a month. Remove it easily by wiping it down with a damp cloth or a wet wipe.
If the moisture and mould are more than just evident, you can also use damp and mould spray. Apply moisture-resistant paint to any areas, especially over external walls that are susceptible to mould.
Use a Dehumidifier
Dehumidifiers operate by taking in air from one end of the room, eliminating the moisture, and then again blowing back out into the room, providing warmth in the process.
Portable dehumidifiers are perfect for use in the home since they can be moved around to a damp basement, the laundry room, or a musty loft after a load of laundry has been washed.
Small non-electric dehumidifiers with water-absorbing crystals are available. In mould-prone regions, dehumidifiers are especially useful for preventing damp behind cabinets in wardrobes. Place the dehumidifier in every room of the house as needed in order to remove excess moisture.
Grouting and Seal Tiles
Mould can be seen developing in bathrooms, kitchens, utility rooms, and wet rooms, among other places.
These rooms have a lot of moisture in the air, which is ideal for mould growth. When you use a heater to dry a damp towel, for example, the water in the towel evaporates into the air, but sometimes the water rests on a chilly wall, which is when mould appears.
Spray the walls with specialised antimicrobial treatment. After that, you can get the grouting lines around the tiles with double grout sealer coats to prevent this from happening in your home.
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To Conclude
Many people in the UK have to deal with moisture problems in their houses. Condensation, rising damp, and penetrating damp are all damp problems that most homeowners would prefer to avoid.
Fortunately, there are steps you can take to avoid rising damp from happening – however, if things progress and you are in need of professional support, then it is best to act fast to avoid the increased severity and cost involved in the issue, which will come with time.
Advanced Damp offers free independent damp surveys for your home to diagnose your damp issues before providing a solution to treat the issue. We also provide a damp-proof course and other damp-proofing solutions.
