Damp Wall Treatment: All You Need To Know 2019

For any home, damp problems are a serous cause for concern.  Regardless of the style of your property, it’s no secret that damp can seriously lower the value of your home, reduce the thermal efficiency, and, if left unchecked long-term, play havoc with your family’s health.

That being said, is there a damp wall treatment that helps?

While damp indicates weatherproofing issues or structural issues, there are some easy and simple solutions. Some of them can be done by yourself, but some require professional help.

The following guide provides you with all you need to know about damp, including the telltale signs to spot, and the failproof ways to solve it…

How to Identify the Problem

The first step towards damp wall treatment is identifying the problem. Where does damp appear? And why does it appear? Damp is usually more frequent, and apparent, during the long, Winter months, when precipitation levels are at their highest.

However, you should still look for signs and signals of mould during the entire year.

For example, for your walls, a simple test will do the trick. Hold your hand against the wall, and see if it feels very cold, or moist to the touch. One obvious giveaway is the appearance of black speckled marks or grey growths on painted walls and wallpaper.

In addition to this, if you notice curling wallpaper, or flaking paint, these are both two clear indicators of damp and mould penetration.

Other areas of your home to pay attention to include both ceilings and windows.

For your ceilings, pay close to attention to the colour of the ceiling. Do you notice any discolouration in any area of the ceiling? Are there brown patches in the external corners? Or are there brown patches near the chimney breasts? All of these are telltale signs of residual moisture in your home.

As for the windows, the easiest and most obvious sign is condensation on windows in the morning. You will also notice small puddles of water along the window sills themselves.

Those are serious indicators of high moisture levels within your home. That means you need to do something, and prevent moisture and damp from spreading.

Damp on Walls: 4 Common Causes

There are four common causes of damp. Depending on the cause, you need to select the appropriate damp wall treatment to resolve it. Sometimes, the cause might be rising damp, in other cases, the penetrating damp is the primary problem.

Let’s break down the causes, and explore the best ways to treat them…

Insufficient Ventilation

You will notice condensation on the windows, but also cold walls and surfaces. Additionally, your home will feel considerably colder than normal.

The cause of this problem is insufficient ventilation, probably caused by the techniques deployed during the initial construction, and home renovations that made it difficult for the moisture to escape from the building.

Penetrating Damp

Penetrating damp appears when the weatherproofing of your home lets you down. Usually, penetrating damp happens because of leaking roofs, leaking gutters, or damaged and deteriorating mortar, although damaged render on the exterior walls can also exacerbate the problem.

You will easily notice suddenly, and out of nowhere, the appearance of damp patches on the inside of an exterior wall. You will also spy damp in the upper corners of the room, probably on the ceiling, and near the chimney breast as well.

Once you identify the source of condensation and damp, you can easily find a damp wall treatment to alleviate the issue. However, in some instances, you’ll need to make repairs, and prevent further damp problems with proper insulation.

Leaking Plumbing

Leaky plumbing is very similar to penetrating damp. Damp caused by problems with plumbing, appears away from the external walls and corners of a room, and is witnessed as a growing damp patch, that shows clear signs of spreading.

Usually, damp caused by plumbing will appear on a ceiling or beneath a radiator or a sink. The cause is leaking cold or hot water supply, damaged central heating pipework, or waste water.

The best way to prevent damp caused by plumbing is to fix the leaky plumbing immediately.

Rising Damp

The symptoms of rising damp are cold and damp surfaces, as well as mould growing in the external corners of the ground floor rooms.

Sometimes, you might even notice a musty smell. Rising damp is a problem that happens in homes that are built in the early 20th century, or properties built before then. Modern properties have damp proof courses built into the footings and foundations that prevent rising damp.

However, damp proof courses are less substantial in older homes, or they might not even be part of the construction. If you live in an older home, where there is substantial rising damp, your first, and best solution is to install a modern, damp proof course.

Damp Wall Treatment: Top Tips and Tricks

You are probably wondering why condensation develops in your home? Well, moisture can be generated in any home. Washing, drying laundry, cooking, even breathing generates moisture. The moist air needs a way to escape your building in order to keep the home dry and comfortable.

If the moist air cannot escape, it accumulates within your home, and results in the formation of condensation. The problem occurs not only in older buildings, but in modern homes as well.

Here are some top tips and tricks you can follow, to prevent condensation and damp in your home:

– Install a de-humidifier in badly affected areas to prevent mould

– Upgrade your home insulation.

– Keep your bathroom, kitchen, and other humid areas in the home well-ventilated.

– Repair leaks as soon as you notice them

– Spread out towels and shower curtains to dry

Most importantly, do not panic if you notice mould. There are effective ways to resolve the issue once and for all, that cost little in the way of time and energy to implement.

How to insulate a home to prevent damp?

There are two areas in your home where you can install insulation to prevent damp and mould. The first one is your internal walls, and the second one is your exterior walls.

For the internal walls, the best insulation product is spray foam insulation. Spray foam has the highest R-value among all insulation materials on offer. In addition to preventing mould and damp, spray foam also creates a thermal envelope of your home, resulting in lower energy bills.

Spray foam has an expansive nature. That means that when you spray it, the foam expands up to 100 times its original size and volume. Because of this, spray foam can fill all cracks, holes, and leakages in your home.

Put simply, spray foam provides an air-tight seal like no other product on the market today. But most importantly of all, spray foam creates an effective moisture barrier, and keeps mould and other allergens outside of your home.

For your external walls, the best damp wall treatment is wall insulation. Designed for exterior walls, the wall insulation can insulate bricks and other porous building materials. How does the product work?

It bonds chemically to the surface, and then penetrates up to 17 mm creating an invisible insulation barrier. The product is available in different textures and colors. Before installation, certified contractors will check for any problems and repair them.

Based on modern nanotechnology, the product reacts with mineral groups, and bonds to the surfaces in question. You can use it for any surface, be it brick, or concrete. The end result is total protection against rain, pollution, algae, and extremes of weather.

In fact, Home Logic External Wall Insulation reduces water absorption by more than 95%.

Tests have shown that damp content of just 5% can lower the insulation performance of your home by 50%. That makes installing insulation a must if you want to keep damp away from your home, and your energy bills as low as possible.

The wall insulation allows your masonry to breathe, and air and moisture to pass through from one side to another. Breathing masonry improves the thermal conductivity and insulation properties, and lowers the energy bills to boot.

But the best part is your home will look fresh and clean at all times. The wall insulation for damp wall treatment is self-cleaning. Dirt particles cannot get a hold on the brickwork and, as a result, they will flow off with rainfall. Perfect!