Easy Steps To Protecting Your House From Damp

When damp caused by moisture enters the house it can create many problems. Near the top of that list certainly are allergies, mold, loss of household energy efficiency and damage to property (which can become structural damage over long periods of time.

If you want to steer clear of such problems and improve your humidity, air quality and stifle the effects of damp and increase your households energy efficiency then here are a few tips for you to mull over. One of the most important things is moisture control. If you want to be saved from the harmful effects of damp caused by moisture and improve your households energy efficiency then you need to effectively control the moisture level in your household.

To improve the flow of moisture around your house the following three areas need to be focused on.

1) Attics 2) Foundations/Basements 3) Walls 

In order to effectively control moisture flow through a home you need to understand the basics of how it moves. These three methods are the most likely for moisture to flow around a house: 1) By heat transfer 2) By diffusion 3) Via air currents.

Diffusion of water vapour through cavities is easily the most important method that moisture travels around a household. Due to basic physics air will normally always shift from a place of high concentration (outside) to an area of low concentration (inside) via any gap it can find. The fastest moisture transfer however is via air currents typically cracks and holes in walls therefore all of these ought to be carefully sealed.

The other method of diffusion through materials and heat transfer takes considerably longer to transfer moisture and the most often used household building materials are good at slowing this process down, along with insulation which aids in the reduction of heat transfer.

It will also be helpful to fully understand exactly how moisture appears in a household. Firstly water is often carried through the air, the higher the air temperature the greater the volume of water it is able to move around. If the air temperature keeps reducing it sooner or later it will hit a level where it is not able to carry the water anymore. The air's moisture will condensate on a nearby cold spot, when the air hits this temperature that is aptly named the dew point.

Therefore by installing vapor diffusion retarders, sealing any cracks or holes in walls and ensuring a good flow of air are the best and simplest ways to control moisture transfer in your house. If you are still having trouble with moisture then seriously consider the use of a home dehumidifier (ebac dehumidifiers come highly recommended) they are very effective at extracting moisture from the air even in very damp conditions. If you follow the above guidelines then you ought to be able to effectively handle most damp and moisture problems either with or without a home dehumidifier.