We’ve all experienced that terrible 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, it’s better to be safe than sorry, so it’s important to properly protect your home against moisture from the start. Once water or moisture does get in, it is very difficult and expensive to stop. Never settle for a builder without the proper qualifications – you could end up with a home that is as waterproof as a spider web!
There are three important areas that you need to take extra care in order to properly moisten 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 placed correctly, you will soon find that the underside of your walls will get wet 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 DPC sheet as described above and to ensure that the waterproofing is effective the two sheets need to be bonded together to prevent moisture or moisture from entering.
The area that many people forget about is window frames, as well as the top and sides of all windows and external door frames. The easiest way to do this is with silicone, but keep in mind that this is not a recommended method as it doesn’t last very long. If the wrong product is used, you will be the lucky winner of a host of maintenance problems!
The interior of your house can also be a victim of humidity 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 as much as possible. Moisture inside the house can be due to a leak from a 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 the shingles and repair or replace broken shingles as quickly as possible. The longer a problem is ignored, the more serious the resulting damage will be! While you’re on the roof, check to see that the balcony has proper drainage and doesn’t turn into a pool after some heavy rain. All gutters should also be regularly inspected and cleaned.
Instead, take preventative measures and properly moisture proof the house – this will end up saving you tons of money and headache pills!
