Do you think your home is the victim of penetrating damp? Are you unsure of what penetrating damp even is? Worry not! In this article, the answers to your most asked questions from; what is penetrating tamp? What areas of your home are commonly affected by penetrating damp? Why is penetrating damp bad? And many more will be given to you from the fruitful knowledge of our experts! In this article, many other sources regarding everything you need to know about penetrating damp are just waiting to be explored… Why not give it a read, and finally get the answers you have been looking for?
Well then, let’s get to it! Lateral damp and water ingress are other names for penetrating damp, and it is characterised as the outcome of a surplus of moisture coming through from the outside, to your internal walls, roof et cetera, ‘penetrating’ through, if you like. It can both remain in isolated patches or even spread across an entire wall in your home, and will affect any level of your home. If your home is an old, solid walled building that needs a little TLC, it may be more susceptible to penetrating damp. However, penetrating damp can affect even newer properties. There are many causes of penetrating damp in your home, such as a flaw in the structural integrity of your home or a certain characteristic your home may possess. Typically though, any penetrating damp in your home will get worse when our terrible British weather gets involved.
As you’ve just read, penetrating damp can affect any level of your home, and any room with an external wall or near the roof. Here are some of the most common places in your home that can be affected by penetrating damp (in our humble opinion)-
Any cracks or even the tiniest of gaps can cause penetrating dampness through your window frames, it is extremely important to check these and keep up to date with their maintenance.
This is pretty much the same as the window frames! Maintenance checks should be done on your doors for cracks and gaps. Your home could be even more susceptible to penetrating damp if your external doors have a weather bar!
When was the last time you checked your roof? It could be a major cause of your penetrating damp! You should look out for missing tiles, the tiles right at the top of your roof called roof ridge tiles and also the flashing, this is where your roof may meet either a chimney or a wall. Any deficit in these areas are sure to cause penetrating damp in your home.
Wear and tear is expected on the external walls of your home! It is inevitable that your home will eventually develop a crack in its render, or mortar between bricks will be chipped away eventually. It is important to keep on top of these things because they will, unfortunately it does make your home twice as susceptible to developing penetrating damp.
Your guttering system’s sole purpose is to collect rainwater from your roof and transfer it safely to the ground into a drain, protecting your roof and your foundations. Therefore any deficit in this system; from a leaking gutter to a flooded drain from the downpipe will make your home far more vulnerable to penetrating damp.
To begin with, penetrating damp just doesn’t look nice at all, does it? Why would you spend your hard earned money, to decorate your house just as you want it? only for it to be ruined by some damp, that could have been prevented, or sorted as soon as it cropped up? It’s a complete waste of your money, and can be very saddening to see all of your hard work ruined!
Penetrating damp can and will actually cause severe damage to your home if it’s left. Hand in hand with making your house look unappealing, it can end up costing you so much money to repair any damages caused by this. Blown plaster is an example of this. You can spot blown plaster from a mile off, this is what happens when damp penetrates through your plaster and causes it to degrade over time, losing its adherence to your walls, causing it to come away from it. It’s not really something you’d want in your home is it?
Did you know long term exposure to penetrating damp in your home can actually cause you and your family health issues? Well for starters, it will eventually compromise the structural integrity of your home, making it an unsafe living environment for you and those you care about! An example of any health issues caused by long-term exposure to penetrating damp is mould toxicity from the development of mould from the penetrating damp. It can make you feel like you have a terrible cold, with congested sinuses, dry throat and a hangover-worthy headache.
Unfortunately the simple answer is short, but not necessarily sweet and that is, no. It does not. The reasoning behind this is because the cause of the penetrating damp will usually be thought of as an inevitable weathering of your home! More often than not, the insurance company will just claim it is because of a lack of up-kept maintenance on your home, therefore you need to sort it.
So basically, the best way to differentiate between penetrating damp and rising damp is to notice the height at which it takes place. Rising damp will only crop up from your ground floor to about a metre above the ground, while, as you’ve just read, penetrating damp can pretty much appear anywhere.
Condensation is when warm, moist air comes into contact with a cold surface and tiny droplets of water forms on said surface. Now the actual ‘spot the difference’ you need to be looking for between penetrating damp and condensation is that more often than not, condensation with inhabit patches of mould, whereas, at first, penetrating damp will will be a stain that looks like it’s been soaked up into your wall.
Did you know that failing cavity wall insulation can cause penetrating dampness in your home? When the moisture enters your cavity, it clings to the cavity wall insulation, this provides a bridge for the moisture to travel across and infiltrate your internal walls. It can cause your cavity wall insulation to clump and sag around brick ties too, this will leave you with a hefty bill if it causes a crack in your render! If you have penetrating damp in your home, this could be the culprit! You are more than welcome to book a free cavity wall insulation survey with us to source out this problem, it’s free, simple, there’s no obligation involved… So why not?
We help families around the UK to live in an energy efficient homes through the use of insulation and installing eco-friendly boilers. We provide boiler grants as well as cavity wall insulation & extraction.
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