We’ve all experienced that awful feeling when you walk into your living room after a heavy rain and find your expensive suede sofa covered in water!
As with most things in life, prevention is better than cure, so it’s important to properly protect your home from moisture from the start. Once water or moisture gets in, it’s very difficult and expensive to stop. Never settle for a builder without the proper qualifications – you could end up with a house that is as waterproof as a spider’s web!
There are three important areas where you need to take special care to properly wet the “base” word test!
Think about the order in which a new house will be built. First, you’ll start with a floor slab that will form the foundation of your home. A Damp Proof Course or DPC is a plastic sheet that is placed between the floor slab and the compacted sand below and that does not allow the passage of water from one point to another. If this sheet is not installed correctly, you will soon find that the underside of the walls will become damp and this could lead to structural damage.
After the slab is ugly, it’s time to build the external walls. You will now need to waterproof at the base of these walls at the level of the floor slab. This will once again be done with a sheet of DPC as described above and to ensure that the waterproofing is effective the two sheets should be bonded together to prevent moisture or moisture from entering.
The area that many people forget about is the window frames, as well as the tops and sides of all windows and external door frames. The easiest way to do this is with silicone, but please note that this is not a recommended method as it does not last long. If the wrong product is used, you will be the lucky winner of endless maintenance problems!
The interior of your home can also be a victim of moisture problems. If you have hardwood floors, moisture or water can cause the floors to rot quickly. As wooden floors are usually quite expensive, this should be avoided if possible. Moisture inside the house can be due to a leaking gutter or roof or even everyday plumbing problems. It is very important to waterproof your floors by installing a vapor barrier.
Also take some time to properly seal shingles and repair or replace broken shingles as quickly as possible. The longer an issue is ignored, the more serious the resulting damage will be! While you’re on the roof, check to make sure the balcony has proper drainage and doesn’t turn into a pool after a bit of heavy rain. All gutters should also be regularly inspected and cleaned.
Instead, take preventative measures and properly proof your home from damp – this will end up saving you tons of money and headache pills!
