The Damp Prevention Checklist

The Damp Prevention Checklist

By Ruth MacEachern

Product Manager

If it is not dealt with, damp can cause long term damage to your home, causing plaster to crumble, and wallpaper to peel.  Damp can also lead to the growth of unsightly mould that will pose a health risk to vulnerable people and those with respiratory conditions or severe allergies.  Once established in a property, damp can be expensive to remove, and repairs will often require a professional.  As with most issues that can affect a home, prevention is better than cure, and in many cases, damp can be stopped by addressing the cause.

Condensation and Humidity

The most common cause of damp in British homes is condensation.  When humidity levels get too high, and warm, moist air comes into contact with cold surfaces such as windows or exterior walls, the water in the air will condense and form wet patches.  On windows or other non-porous surfaces, this is not a problem, and the moisture can simply be wiped away, however on other surfaces such as plaster or wood, the moisture can be absorbed and build up below the surface where it becomes a persistent damp patch.

Water vapour is released into the air of our homes all the time – from cooking and bathing through to simply breathing, a family can easily release almost 60 litres of water into the air of their homes on a single day.  This amount of water vapour needs to escape from the property, or it will exceed the levels that the air can hold and cause condensation.

Reducing Condensation to Reduce Damp

There are practical, simple steps that you can take to reduce the humidity levels in your home.  Ensuring that bathroom and kitchen doors are closed when in use and avoiding drying clothes or towels on radiators is simple, but this will only go part of the way toward preventing damp.  In order to properly reduce the presence of damp in your home, it is vitally important to improve the levels of ventilation that you have.

Most homes have extractor fans in kitchens and bathrooms, but if these are older, they might no longer be as efficient as they once were.  They might also be insufficient to handle the amount of moisture generated.  Modern extractor fans such as EnviroVent’s Cyclone 7 feature humidity sensors that automatically adjust the power of the fan to keep humidity levels low and prevent condensation from forming.  Extractor fans are ideal for reducing the amount of condensation and preventing damp in the rooms where they are installed and will help to lower humidity throughout the house as a result, but they cannot completely eradicate damp.

You might find damp problems forming in rooms away from moisture sources.  This is often due to poor air flow in those rooms.  If air is not moving, it has more time to cool off and release moisture.  If you have rooms that are not in constant use, you may find that they become damp.  Whole house ventilation systems prevent this from happening.  Positive Input Ventilation (PIV) works by drawing filtered air into the home through a central unit and distributing it into all rooms where it displaces the stale or moisture laden air.  This prevents condensation forming away from the source of moisture and stops damp from developing.

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If you are concerned about the build up of damp in your home, or have noticed mould patches starting to form, it is important to act quickly.  Contact us today to book your free home survey.  Our local specialists can find the root of your condensation or damp problem quickly and advise you on the best solution for your needs.