DAMP PROOFING

Handyman Cape Town | The Home Doctors help you to recognise whether you have a damp problem or not?

• Unexplained brown marks on the wall
• Bubbling paint
• Bubbling wall paper
• Stains in the ceiling boards
  
• Mould on wooden window sills
• Mould on wooden floors
  

If you recognize any of these in your home chances are you have a damp problem and left unchecked will cause further damage and will land up costing you more money to repair in the end. The problem is when damp problems start, they don’t go away!

When building a home one of the most important things to consider is the damp proofing. Unfortunately many builders, try and save on costs by applying inadequate plastic sheeting that prevents the water from passing from one place to the next.

For external walls, a damp proofing sheet must be applied at the base to the floor slab to stop any water from penetrating and creeping.If this is not applied properly you will find that in time the bottom of your walls will become moist which will cause a big problem.

When treating a damp problem, appropriate treatments are important as if the incorrect treatments are applied, thus could lead to further damage by sealing the walls up rather than improving their ability to breathe. 

Rising Damp
If the wet patch on the wall seem to be rising from the bottom or ground level or there is a fine powdery type of substance on the wall close to the floor, there is a good chance that this is rising damp. The cause of rising damp is usually due to insufficient or lack of a damp proofing course. If you live in an apartment on the second floor and above, it is highly unlikely that you have rising damp, as this usually occurs from the ground up.

How the Handyman Cape Town | The Home Doctors’s treat rising damp?
The first area that we observe is the drainage area of the site. We ensure that the ground surrounding the affected site is sloping away from the problem area and check to ensure that there is enough space under the floorboards for the moisture to evaporate from the soil below.

Once this initial check has been done, we will then proceed with other appropriate remedial damp proofing tasks like, removing the plaster to expose the brickwork and re-plastering once a suitable water proofing compound has been applied.
Thereafter, the plaster will need to be primed and all other coating will then need to be reapplied.

Penetrating damp:
If the interior walls are showing signs of damp and seems to be isolated to one area of the wall, the problem is probably caused as a result of water from the outside seeping into the brickwork via cracks or gaps from the outside walls.

How we treat penetrating damp?  
The first areas that we observe are the external paintwork and the pointings. Thereafter, remedial work will be applied to seal the gaps and cracks and all restored back to good condition.

Condensation:
If you have looked at both rising damp and penetrating damp types and do not recognise the symptoms, in all likelihood your property could be suffering from a condensation problem. This is generally caused by double glazing and excess insulation making your property airtight. This causes moisture in your property to build up and the humidity levels to increase as a result of a lack of ventilation.
Products we use:
Flexible, acrylic based waterproofing liquid

Geoflex is a waterproof coating, which affords excellent protection from rainwater and dampness; has a high resistance to ultra violet light and has a long life expectancy.
 

Rising Damp powdery substance seen at floor level

Penetrating damp - isolated to one area of the wall