Your house is as important as you, toxic mold illness is something that you should not take for granted. Testing your house for dampness will be the right direction to keep your family from falling ill.
A damp meter, surface thermometer and memory hygrometer are some of the tools you will require to check your house. These tools however are not available to many, if you do not have them, using the back of your hand is also another option to access the relative dampness of the affected part in your house. This process does not require an expert; you can do it by yourself. You only need to check for the following signs;
Can you see any black spot mold in your house?
Use a condensation kit if any to confirm, check for the ventilation and heating. If it’s a cavity wall, check the brickwork pattern from the outside. Longwise brick means a cavity construction. It might be that you are having some dirty wall ties that gives rise to the cold spot. Taking out the individual brick and cleaning will help solve this.
Damp stain above the skirting board or the boards is rotten.
Check the exterior ground level to find out if the plaster bridges the damp proof course. The ground level is supposed to be at least 6 inches below the damp proof course level. Know if a damp proof course was installed during construction and if a render proof waterproofing additives was used. Check your neighbors if their floor is above yours. Have they done any replacement or repairs against the house wall? If the damp is higher or patchy, its more likely to be a penetrating dampness. Check for defects, gutters and down pipes from the exterior walls. The pointing in the joints, treat them with an ultra proof waterproofer.
The presence of fluffy white salt like substance on the wall is a definite way to know that your house is damp. You probably have penetrating dampness, it shows that wetting has occurred and thus drying is now taking place. Treat such cases with salt neutralizer that is if the damage is not too much. Check on the exterior walls for defects and treat with ultra proof waterproofer. It can also be that your dampness may be due to hygroscopic salts that have deposited in the wall from the chimney. In some cases it will be good if you can use the mesh membrane wall lining systems rather than using replaster.
See whether the walls and floor are visibly damp.
You may realize that you have a water leak topping up the soil under your house; you will need to follow the water leak testing routine to find the water source. This you can do by asking your local water authority to test your water main pipes for any leakages. They need to test the neighbor’s as well. Find out if you have water in your building, know the source of the water. You need also to test your own drains by finding the manhole cover, lift it and run the tap to see which hole the water flows from.
Replaster all old walls but this time make sure the builders do not use the modern lightweight plasters like bonding or browning.
Make sure your home has the ideal temperature and humidity.
Veronica Jewell writes for a range of internet businesses. This article was written for LocalQuoter.net, an online double glazing quote comparison site. You can compare quotes from suppliers such as
Safestyle and Weatherseal.
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