Welcome to Damp UK
Dampness is something that cannot be defined as a good thing or a bad thing. In the case of maintaining good indoor air quality, damp can definitely be defined as a bad thing. Dampness can create a myriad of problems in all of its forms. Dampness could occur in the form of increased moisture content in the air, coat surfaces in the form of dew of form puddles where droplets have accumulated. Whatever the form is, dampness could cause all sorts of complications when found at the wrong places.
The presence of damp in unlikely places can often cause a string of undesirable effects. Other than bathrooms and kitchen sinks, water should not be present at other locations of your house. If water, in any of its forms, is present elsewhere for extended periods of time, the possibility is high for it to be an indication of underlying problems. For instance, if you notice higher moisture content in your indoor air, there is a high possibility for your hose to have a ventilation problem. If the problem is allowed to remain for longer, you will start to notice all sorts of other complications. If these complications include a musty smell in the air, you might be facing a serious problem. A musty smell is often a sign of a mould infestation somewhere within your house. A mould infestation could become a serious issue if not taken care of at the earliest possible stage. Mould infestations are not only visually unappealing, they also has the ability to trigger allergic reactions as well as to accumulate in the system to create serious health complications.
Apart from turning your house in to a breeding ground for mould, dampness could also create other undesirable effects. For instance, having damp walls could cause your wallpaper to peel and for the paint to bubble and chip away in time. In other words, the presence of damp inside your house could have an adverse effect on its appearance.
The purpose of a building is to protect its occupants from external forces of nature. This is why architects, engineers and the owners always pay special attention for building insulation and proofing procedures. In order to make sure that a house is safe from water in all of its forms; proper damp proofing procedures have to be performed at the construction stage.
The prevention of water from entering your house can be done in many different ways. For different areas of your house, different waterproofing methods have to be employed to make sure that they are protected from the many undesirable effects of dampness. The methods are selected according to the amount of water it is likely to make contact with. For example, the floor and walls of a bathroom are bound to be splashed by water more often than your bedroom walls. Therefore, the waterproofing techniques are different for these two different areas of your house. In most cases, places like bathroom floors are completely coated with an impermeable substance before the finishes are laid on. When it comes to places like bedrooms, damp proofing is not such a priority. However, if any walls of your bedrooms are a part of an external wall, you may want to pay special attention to make sure that proper water proofing precautions are taken. In the case of waterproofing external walls, it is usually done with a few coats of weather shield paint to prevent water from seeping in to the internal surface of the wall.
In some situations, water proofing is an absolute necessity even in internal surfaces that are highly unlikely to make contact with liquid water. The reason for this is the weather patterns and climate of the area that the house or building is situated in. In the case of a house located within an area where the moisture content of the air is naturally high, it is essential that the owners invest in a proper waterproofing system.
Whatever the weather condition, basements always have to be properly insulated against damp proofing and proper ventilation. Since the basement is directly linked to the foundation, seepages could lead to the weakening of the foundation over time.
Whatever your experience with internal dampness maybe, a quality professional in the trade of damp proofing could help you overcome any difficulty with their expertise and specialised technology.