Rising damp is one of all talked about subject matter because it is situated in every house .This HOW EXACTLY TO guide goes through identifying rising damp, the complexities as well as how to effectively deal with it. A big part of the guide is given to correctly identifying growing wet in your home, telling it aside from a lot more common damp issues. We also bust some myths around increasing damp and its own treatment.
What is Climbing Damp?
Rising damp is a relatively exceptional form of damp that influences the wall surfaces of properties. It occurs when water from the ground vacations up through the wall space by capillary action. Which means that earth normal water is effectively sucked up through little tubes in the bricks, such as a group of straws. This normal water contains salts that also travel up through the wall structure.
Around the damaged wall, you get other porous building materials such as plaste rwork and the timber within the ground boards, joists and skirtings. These materials will also absorb the bottom water easily and you’ll find evidence of damp rot in the timber.
Generally rising damp is first noticed by the damage it causes to the internal walls of an building. Plaster and color can deteriorate and any wallpaper will loosen. A visible stain often looks on the wall by means of a tide tag at the stage where the ground drinking water has reached. You may even see salts blooming on the internal surface. This is something often associated with increasing damp and will business lead to the debonding of paints and even plaster work. Externally, mortar may crumble and white salt discolorations can happen on the wall space. We will go in to the common signals of rising damp in greater detail later in the guide.
Causes of Soaring Damp
Rising wet is a comparatively uncommon form of wet that impacts the walls of buildings. It occurs when wetness from the bottom vacations up through the wall surfaces by capillary action. Which means that earth drinking water is effectively sucked up through tiny pipes in the bricks, such as a series of straws. This normal water contains salts that also travel up through the wall structure.
Around the damaged wall structure, you get other porous building materials such as plaster work and the timber found in the floor planks, joists and skirting. These materials will also absorb the bottom water easily and you’ll find evidence of wet rot in the timber.
A lot of people first notice a concern with rising damp on internal wall surfaces. Rising damp often ends in tide marks on your interior wall surfaces up to the height where the normal water has reached. In most cases, these tide tag stains appear up to a metre above the skirting table. In a few very rare circumstances, drinking water can travel beyond this aspect.
The height the water reaches is determined by several key factors. Included in these are the pore composition of the bricks and mortar and the speed of evaporation. Masonry including a high proportion of fine pores allows the water to go up higher than one with less pores. Growing damp may appear up to 1 1.5 metres and even higher in some very rare instances.
Water from the ground often contains salts that are then deposited on the wall when water evaporates. These salts can cause the paint to bubble and a white fluffy deposit to be kept on the top. A couple of two main types of salt – sulphates which lead to crusty white areas and unseen hygroscopic salts known as nitrates and chlorides. The hygroscopic salts continue steadily to draw moisture and for that reason must be cared for.
Rising Damp External Walls
Rising damp make a difference both internal and external surfaces. When looking for evidence of growing damp on external walls, again you should keep an eye out for tide markings. You may even see a few of the mortar crumbling between your bricks or stonework and salt deposits too.
Signs of Rising Damp
Rising damp is a relatively exceptional form of wet and treatment will only work if it’s correctly diagnosed. Hence, it is vitally important to obtain a professional diagnosis from a professional surveyor – this calls for a rising damp survey of your house including evaluation of the salts.
It could be hard to tell apart rising wet from other types of wet like condensation or penetrating wet.
With that said, listed below are a few of the more common signs of rising wet that you can consider:
Tide grades of salts
Dark patches on walls that may be moist to touch – for a better indication of growing wet you want to determine that the brickwork / masonry is really wet and not simply the plaster or wallpaper.
Staining of wall coverings, peeling wallpaper & blistering color.
Wet and musty smell.
Discolouration & fragmenting plaster.
Decaying timber e.g. skirting planks, floor planks, floor joist
Rising Wet Treatment
The cream is injected or hand-pumped into specially-positioned holes in the mortar course. Once inserted, the wet proofing cream reverts to a liquid. This allows it to penetrate the bricks and achieve complete absorption. As it cures, it creates a powerful water-repellent hurdle and a new substance DPC that stops normal water from rising up the wall structure. For full instructions on how to treat growing damp with damp proofing cream read our guide to injecting wet proof courses.
On the other hand, you can install a new damp proof membrane to act as a damp proof course. That is a much bigger and more difficult process that involves taking out each brick over the failed mortar course and installing a fresh physical wet proof membrane.