Damp is one of the issues that many home owners find they commonly face in old houses. Damp doesn’t make itself known straight away and takes time to show up in a building.
However when it does show up it becomes difficult because it can create health problems and damage the structure of a property if left untreated.
What are the signs of damp you need to look out for?
Damp can show up in a variety of different ways. One of the most common ways for it to appear in your home is for it to show as a brown colour on the wall where the water is penetrating.
It can also start to show as paint peeling away from the wall where the damp is coming through. If wallpaper is on the wall the paper will start to disintegrate due to the water in the wall.
Damp that is present in the walls often smells and it can be easy to identify because of this. It is a musty smell that is quite detectable coming from the walls.
Damp walls feel cold to the touch, they obviously feel damp too which is a tell tale sign that there is a problem with water entering the building.
Mould is a common problem associated with damp inside a property. Areas where there is damp can become mouldy quite quickly and this mould can become a health risk.
Excessive condensation on windows generally means that there is more damp inside a property than there should be.
Damp is actually quite easy to spot in a property because any one or more of the above signs can be quite visible. The hardest thing to detect is when it first starts and it hasn’t yet become visible in the walls or inside the property.
If this damp is due to the damp proofing being broken this can only really be checked by looking at the damp proof course around the walls. This is where leaks will be if the damp proof course is broken or is just old and has disintegrated over time.
Damp proofing specialist
A damp proofing specialist will be able to check the course to see if it has been damaged or become dislodged in any way. They will then be able to repair it, which in most cases will solve the damp problem.
Other damp can come from different issues such as a leak in some part of the property or the level of a room in a property being below the ground floor so water can drip in.