If your external walls are damaged then penetrating damp can cause damp patches all over the inside of exterior walls, and around windows and doors. The exterior of your walls will need to be repaired or restored.
Things to look out for:
- Cracks in your wall.
- Mortar between the bricks is missing.
- Missing bricks.
- Blown / Flaky bricks.
- Rendered walls are cracked.
- Render is missing.
- Holes not sealed properly.
- Gaps around pipes.
- Seals around windows and doors are missing.
Penetrating damp from rainwater can occur in buildings of all ages. If it gets right through the wall it can be visible as discolouration or a damp patch, it can appear as flaking or peeling paintwork and wallpaper. Problems can occur in solid walls and cavity walls due to bad wall-ties or cavity wall insulation which can provide a pathway for rain to track through the wall.
When trying to stop penetrating damp we need to look at 2 things.
- How to get water away from your property quickly.
- How to stop water getting to the inside of your property.
We must firstly look at ways to move water away as if the property is retaining less water then chances are less water can get in. Rainwater can be damage properties, even if it does not penetrate all the way through a wall. Water retention can cause the following problems, for example;
- Moss growth
- Heat loss – wet walls ‘pull’ heat out of your home
- Frost damage
- Flaking bricks
- Cracking or further cracking of walls
Checking the condition of your bathroom / kitchen waste pipes, your drain pipes, structures built onto and erected close to your property and the floor level around the base of your property will usually lead to identifying most of the causes water retention. Your Home Improvement Plan will present solutions and ideas on how to resolve these problems.
The next issue to be resolved is how to stop water entering the property. Cracks, gaps and holes in your walls are the main culprits. They must be repaired and sealed to stop water getting in.
It may be required, depending on your local weather conditions, that extra weather proofing with specialist water repellents be used on the wall. These are applied like paint but dry clear and enable water to roll off the walls easily. They also have the advantage of stopping the wall getting wet so can help towards keeping the property warm effectively acting like an insulating layer.
