Condensation Damp on Internal Walls
Common Causes of Condensation on Internal Walls
Condensation on the walls is typically caused by warm air hitting the colder walls, where it evaporates into moisture. Excess moisture inside the home is the most common cause of condensation on the internal walls. Some condensation inside the home is completely normal and harmless, but excess condensation can lead to a huge range of problems for your property including damp and rot. Thankfully, there are several things that you can do to get rid of excess condensation in your home and make sure that the moisture in your property is kept under control.
Understanding the common causes of condensation on internal walls is important for keeping the problem under control and avoiding this problem in the future. Condensation occurs since warm air holds more moisture compared to cold air. As a result, warm air coming into contact with a cold surface leads to the air quickly cooling and releasing the excess moisture in the form of condensation. This is commonly seen on windows as these tend to be the coolest surface in a home that is insulated. However, condensation can also form on the internal walls.
Common Causes of Condensation Damp on Walls
Since condensation on the walls is caused by warmer air coming into contact with the colder surface of the wall, it can be caused by many of the day-to-day activities that we all do. Some of the common causes of condensation in the home might be things that you do on a regular basis without giving it much thought including cooking and using the kettle, washing your clothes, drying clothes, taking a bath or shower, washing the dishes, cleaning using water, or even breathing throughout the day. In a well-ventilated home, these activities are unlikely to cause a serious amount of condensation that will lead to further issues like damp and mould.
Precautions You Can Take to Avoid Condensation Damp
Keeping your home well-ventilated is the best way to prevent condensation from forming and leading to further issues like damp and mould. Good ventilation should always be used in the form of an extractor fan which will remove the moisture from the air when you are taking part in everyday household activities such as cooking, using the kettle, or taking a bath or shower. If you dry your clothes at home, it’s best to dry them in the bathroom with the door closed and the extractor fan on in order to reduce the amount of moisture produced. Wherever possible, using a tumble dryer that is well-ventilated or using an outdoor washing line to dry your clothes is a better option for reducing moisture and condensation. However, if none of these options are possible and you do need to dry your clothes in other areas of the house, make sure to open the windows or use the extractor fan in your kitchen if drying clothes in there to allow the moisture to escape easily.
Do Condenser Dryers Make the Room Damp?
Using a tumble dryer to dry your clothes is often recommended as a way to prevent moisture leading to condensation and damp. However, this is not a fool-proof way to avoid condensation and it’s important to take some precautions when using your condenser dryer to reduce the amount of warm air and moisture. Condenser dryers do not use a vent hose and are designed to turn all of the steam into water. But since they will create heat when they are running, a condenser dryer will also heat up the air that is around it, which can lead to condensation when the moisture in the air comes into contact with cold surfaces – typically your windows and walls.
If the dryer that you use is not a high-quality one, there is also the risk that it might allow some moist air from the drying process to escape into the room. As a result, it is often important to either make sure that the room is warm when you are using the condenser dryer to dry your clothes, or create additional ventilation. Running an extractor fan in the room or opening the window when drying your clothes will help any additional moisture to escape easily and help you avoid condensation and damp as a result. If you have a condenser dryer that has recently started to create more condensation and steam when it did not previously, it’s worth checking the filters to make sure that they are all clean, since this can have an effect on the performance of the appliance.
How to Deal with Condensation Damp on Internal Walls
If you have noticed condensation and damp forming on your internal walls, there are several things that you can do to deal with this problem. First of all, it’s important to understand the potential causes, so come up with a list of all the moisture-causing activities that you perform in the room in question to see what the root cause may be.
Running a dehumidifier in the room is an easy and effective way to improve ventilation and prevent further condensation from forming in the future. If your walls have already been affected by the condensation and have damp patches on them as a result, you may need to treat them with a damp-proof paint or other treatment to dry out the wall and prevent the damp from spreading or returning. Damp-proof paint should be applied and then left to fully dry before wallpapering over it or using a coat of emulsion.
If you are dealing with a room in your home that tends to produce more moisture than the others, such as the bathroom or kitchen, decorate using a paint that is specifically formulated to repel moisture and damp. Most good paint brands will now offer specially designed kitchen or bathroom paint, or durable paint that is not only moisture-repellent but easier to keep clean, making it more ideal for those areas of the home.
When Do You Need Damp Condensation Specialists?
If the condensation and damp in your home is becoming too much for you to repair on your own, or you have tried all the preventative measures you can think of but the problem is not going away, it may be worth getting in touch with a damp condensation specialist who can help you rectify the problem. The specialist will be able to conduct an inspection of your home to determine where the condensation is coming from and how it is affecting your internal walls. They can also provide advice and information on treatments available and preventative measures that you may not have been aware of that you can take in the future to avoid the problem coming back.
A specialist can conduct a damp proof survey, which can be helpful in many ways since along with looking for damp in the home that has been caused by condensation, it can also find any potential signs of damp from other causes such as rising damp or penetrating damp from the outside. The specialist will then go into further detail about the types of damp that have been found in your property and you may find that the damp that you believed was caused by condensation might actually be the result of something else, such as an internal leak in the plumbing system.
You will also get more information on any damp-related problems that may have developed in your home that you are not aware of, such as hidden mould, or any issues that are at a high risk of developing in the future as a result of the damp and should be dealt with immediately in order to prevent. Overall, getting a damp condensation specialist to look at your home can be an ideal way to save money in the future by ensuring that you have all the information that you need to prevent further damp and deal with the issues that you are already experiencing at the root cause.
Ways to Improve Ventilation in the Home
Condensation damp is typically the result of poor ventilation in the home. Since it is impossible to stop doing the activities that we perform on a daily basis while living in our homes like cooking, bathing, washing and drying clothes and even breathing, good ventilation is key to avoiding condensation and damp problems as a result. Installing air vents in your home is one way to keep it well-ventilated, along with extractor fans in high-moisture areas. If you do not have an extractor fan fitted in areas such as the bathroom or kitchen, it’s important to keep the area ventilated by opening a window or external door whenever you are doing something that creates moisture like cooking or showering. Dehumidifiers in the room can also help to dry the air and prevent condensation from forming on the internal walls.
Many of the daily living activities that we do can lead to condensation on the internal walls of our homes. Understanding the common causes of condensation and how to avoid it can help you prevent future damp and mould problems.
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