How Damp Proofing Can Protect Your Home & Your Family

How Damp Proofing Can Protect Your Home & Your Family

Damp can come in different severities, there are also different types of damp, including rising, penetrating, condensation and rot. Rising damp is the most common in domestic properties, and can be caused by things like leaking pipes, poor condensation control, weak windowsills and issues with your insulation.

Damp proofing courses can help protect your home. It is particularly important to ensure your property is watertight and regularly reviewed if you live in an exposed area, such as a costal or beach-front property. This is why it’s important to protect your home…

How Damp Proofing Can Protect Your Home & Your Family

• Avoid Damage From Escalating

Cracked windowsills, windows that aren’t watertight or fitted properly and warped doors are all minor repairs. Although they are inconvenient, they don’t cost too much to fix. Allowing this kind of rising damp or issue caused by condensation to continue, without a damp proof course, could do much more serious, structural damage to your property.

The timbers of your property, including the roofing structure can be seriously compromised by damp conditions. The structural integrity can be compromised to the extent of collapse and crumbling.

Fungus also grows from condensation and damp, known as wet or dry rot. These can also fester in carpets and the soft furnishings in your home, putting your family’s health at risk. Dry rot is perhaps the most serious, as it can penetrate dry walls, too.

Tackling small issues of condensation early can prevent this from escalating and requiring more expensive, more extensive works that may also require you to temporarily leave your home.

• Protect The Health and Happiness Of Your Family

Damp that causes mould and mildew thrives in warm, moist conditions. This creates a sporous matter that can spread throughout your home, you might typically notice this as a green, brown or black spotting or patches on your walls and ceilings. When this discoloration is present, toxins are in the air. They can be transferred through air particles and through touch. They cause respiratory problems, skin and eye irritation and serious headaches in serious situations. It is most likely to affect at-risk people, including the elderly and the young, as well as pets.

• Maintain The Value Of Your Home

The appearance of damp patches in your home can radically decrease the value of your home because of the health and financial risks it poses to a potential buyer. It indicates there is a structural or expensive issue that they may need to tackle in the future. This requires an investment, which could knock value off the price of your home. Simply ventilating your home properly and ensuring that you manage any signs of damp, either with a full damp proofing course or by installing condensation control units, can protect all the money you have already invested in your property, which means it’s always worth it.

Remember, it’s a myth that damp can only affect older homes. The nature of rising damp does mean that it takes longer to occur, or become known, but it can still happen in new builds and new homes. Fortunately, if you are living in a new home, you are likely to be protected by a warranty or property developer promise. When you contact the company that built your home, make sure you express the seriousness of damp. It should be treated as a high priority.

Guest Article. Contains sponsored links.