🔍 Identifying Dampness Issues in Buildings: A Quick Guide to Common Problems
Are you dealing with internal condensation, rising dampness, penetrating dampness, or water ingress? Knowing how to quickly identify the root cause can save you time, money, and unnecessary damage.
Here’s a brief breakdown to help you assess the issue:
🔹 Condensation:
When warm, moist air is trapped indoors without proper ventilation, water vapour condenses on cool surfaces, leading to mould growth. This typically affects the internal face of external walls, leaving the inner parts dry. A simple test: Drill a small hole halfway through and measure moisture content to confirm.
🔹 Rising Dampness:
This issue occurs due to capillary action, where moisture moves up from the ground into the walls. You’ll see higher moisture readings at the bottom of the wall, decreasing as you move up. It typically affects external walls and slabs. Osmosis may further worsen the process by drawing more water up to dilute the previously deposited salts, creating hydrostatic pressure.
🔹 Penetrating Dampness:
Similar to rising dampness, this occurs when external walls and slabs are below ground level, allowing water vapour to penetrate from the outside. Moisture readings will be high from the bottom up to soil level, often with visible wet spots. This can be a result of compromised waterproofing, wrong waterproofing design, or structural issues.
💡 Pro Tip: Always inspect key areas like DPC (Damp Proof Course), cavity flashing, and weep holes, and check for any visible wall cracks or failures in gutters and roof waterproofing. These are often the first signs of underlying problems.
🔧 How do you quickly identify dampness issues in your projects? Share your tips and experiences in the comments!
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Posted on 30/12/2024
Written by Hacene Baleh
