Damp can fall into a number of different categories. These are as follows:
- Rising dampness
- Condensation
- Penetrating dampness
- Tramatic dampness
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Rising Dampness
This is usually when there is a sign of a damp patch on one of your internal walls. Typically, this is often combined with there being damage to the skirting boards and decoration.
It’s because of rising damp that you will have structural damage to your interior walls. It should also be noted that recent findings concluded that a damp room can increase the risk of developing asthma.
If you don’t attend to rising damp then it will eventually cause rot to floor joists and other interior timbers that it comes into contact with, resulting in the development of wet rot or dry rot if conditions are lacking ventilation.
This can be caused by a number of issues, these are as follows:
- Blocked/defective gutters
- High ground levels, new driveways, new paths or even tarmac bridging the DPC
- Defective pointing, porous brickwork and spauling bricks
- Faulty or defective flashing on roofs or extensions
- Cracked or missing roof tiles or slates
- Internal defects in cavity walls
- Cracked or defective window sills
- Internal chimney defects where a fireplace has been blocked in
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Condensation
Windows will start to steam up as the weather changes which results in condensation and mould growth.
This is caused when warm, moist air meets a cold surface and the water vapour condenses out. The capacity of air to hold water is related to temperature, with the warm air holding more water than cold air. The air is saturated when it cannot hold any more water vapour at the existing temperature and there is a relative humidity of 100%. If the temperature of the air falls until saturation point occurs then the air is at a critical temperature or dew point where any further fall in temperature will result in water vapour being forced to condense out as water.
Penetrating dampness
This occurs when moisture seeps in from the external walls to the internal walls, it is usually caused by construction that has failed. This occurs at a high level of the property.
Some causes of penetrating dampness includes:
- Blocked guttering or downpipes – These will overflow when they are blocked and will saturate the adjacent wall
- Unused chimneys that are capped or sealed and have a defective haunching that allows water to enter the chimney and saturate the building
- Where the flashing on a building fails leaks will occur which can lead to penetrating dampness
- Valley gutters that are not aligned properly can cause penetrating dampness
- Cavity walls that have a bridge, this can be caused by rubbish being left in the cavity or mortar that has been left on the wall ties or insulation batts during construction can cause penetrating dampness if the wall experiences driving rain
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Tramatic dampness
This is generally the cause of a leaking pipe, drain, tank or radiator. The water is soaked up by the building fabric and the size of the patch steadily increases as more water is absorbed.
It is important that you have the damage inspected by a damp survey as the building fabric may have to have an anti-fungal treatment applied to prevent mould growth.
What We Can Do
We provide damp surveys for people in Glasgow who have any concerns about their property, so if you fear that you have a form of dampness then you should come to us.
We can arrange for a fully qualified building surveyor to come out to your home in Glasgow. At this point, they will carry out a full survey and provide you with a written report on the findings.
Damp surveys are competitively priced so you can expect to pay a reasonable price for the survey to be carried out.
Contact Us
To arrange for a qualified building surveyor to come out to your home in Glasgow, simply give us a call on 0800 520 0347.