Arnold
CibbuanoRising Damp
July 12th 2006 00:52
Have you noticed some of any of these problems around your house?
1. Paint won’t adhere to the walls and old paint starts to flake off.
2. Wallpaper lifts, bubbles and stains appear on the walls.
3. You’ve noticed that wall plaster either flakes away, feels soft and spongy, bubbles or white powder/crystals appear.
4. Skirting boards or floor boards have started to show signs of rotting.
5. Mortar frets (cracks) and falls out between bricks and stonework.
6. Stains or white powder appear on walls.
If so, you may have a rising damp problem.
Rising damp in buildings may be defined as the vertical flow of ground water up through your wall structure. It happens due to capillary action, in much the same way that trees suck up moisture from the ground. The water rises through the pores in the masonary. The reason why your walls will suddenly develop this capillary action is due to age and wear. As the structure begins to deteriorate cracks, breaks and leaks can occur in the damp course and allow moisture to penetrate the internal structure, renders and earth levels.
A damp course is fancy term for a layer of some impermeable material that is laid in the foundation walls of building near the ground to prevent dampness from rising into the building and is supposed to prevent the problem of rising damp. Introduced in the 1860's, damp-proof courses were originally formed by layers of slate in cement, or by layers of asphalt or bituminous felt. The usual location for them was a few inches (approximately 150mm) above ground level and below floor level. Today the most commonly used materials are bitumen-coated copper or aluminium, although heavy-duty polythene is sometimes used. If you’ve got an older style house, the damp course may be improperly laided or even non-existant.
If you’ve noticed a lot of moisture in your house, rising damp could be a problem however, it needs to be properly diagnosed as fixing rising damp is a costly procedure. In the case of added moisture being present in your property there are two likely ways this moisture could be penetrating the house. Either from the top down or the bottom up. You want to make sure that the moisture is not coming in via leak in the roof, leaking plumbing systems or a poor ventilation problem. If there are inadequate ventilation systems around your kitchen, laundry and bathroom spaces, this may be causing moisture to accumulate in adjacent areas of the house.
Now we know what we’re dealing with, tomorrow I’ll look at some solutions.
1. Paint won’t adhere to the walls and old paint starts to flake off.
2. Wallpaper lifts, bubbles and stains appear on the walls.
3. You’ve noticed that wall plaster either flakes away, feels soft and spongy, bubbles or white powder/crystals appear.
4. Skirting boards or floor boards have started to show signs of rotting.
5. Mortar frets (cracks) and falls out between bricks and stonework.
6. Stains or white powder appear on walls.
If so, you may have a rising damp problem.
Rising damp in buildings may be defined as the vertical flow of ground water up through your wall structure. It happens due to capillary action, in much the same way that trees suck up moisture from the ground. The water rises through the pores in the masonary. The reason why your walls will suddenly develop this capillary action is due to age and wear. As the structure begins to deteriorate cracks, breaks and leaks can occur in the damp course and allow moisture to penetrate the internal structure, renders and earth levels.
A damp course is fancy term for a layer of some impermeable material that is laid in the foundation walls of building near the ground to prevent dampness from rising into the building and is supposed to prevent the problem of rising damp. Introduced in the 1860's, damp-proof courses were originally formed by layers of slate in cement, or by layers of asphalt or bituminous felt. The usual location for them was a few inches (approximately 150mm) above ground level and below floor level. Today the most commonly used materials are bitumen-coated copper or aluminium, although heavy-duty polythene is sometimes used. If you’ve got an older style house, the damp course may be improperly laided or even non-existant.
If you’ve noticed a lot of moisture in your house, rising damp could be a problem however, it needs to be properly diagnosed as fixing rising damp is a costly procedure. In the case of added moisture being present in your property there are two likely ways this moisture could be penetrating the house. Either from the top down or the bottom up. You want to make sure that the moisture is not coming in via leak in the roof, leaking plumbing systems or a poor ventilation problem. If there are inadequate ventilation systems around your kitchen, laundry and bathroom spaces, this may be causing moisture to accumulate in adjacent areas of the house.
Now we know what we’re dealing with, tomorrow I’ll look at some solutions.
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