There is no worse feeling in any basement of any home than the feeling of damp furniture and upholstery.

Dampness can turn your home into an uncomfortable place by making your furniture smell, creating health problems, and potentially damaging parts of your home. Interestingly, most people do not know about the causes of dampness and the necessary steps needed to be taken in order to prevent future dampness.

Take the time today to review the causes and solutions of dampness in your home.

The Leading Potential Causes of Dampness

There are generally three separate ways that water and dampness can damage your home, here are some examples:

• Penetrating Dampness: This type of dampness is associated with damage caused by water getting into your home from the outside. This is where water gets into your home from outside. Look closely on your bricks or wallpaper for stains and dark, damp patches in your home. Carefully inspect your rainwater pipes, roof, gutters, brickwork, and windowsills to observe if any water is entering your home.
• Condensation: This type of dampness generally occurs when water vapour in the air condenses on a cold surface. Normally appearing on window and window sills, this type of water vapour evaporates as the house heats up – the resulting heat gain forces the water to condense onto your furniture, floors, and upholstery – creating a headache for you in the process.
• Water Vapour: This is created by normal, everyday living in your house such as bathing, cooking, drying clothes, and even breathing. The average family can produce upwards of 20 pints of moisture through everyday activities. As you can see, moisture is everywhere in your home – it’s time to take steps to help reduce the amount of dampness in your home.

Preventing Dampness

Simple and Fast Steps to Protect Your Home You can easily reduce the dampness in your home by following these simple steps:

• Try to avoid cooking on pans without a lid (prevents moisture)
• Install a pipe that takes your dryer’s moisture outside – if you use a rack to dry your clothes, dry them outside.
• Run a bath by adding cold water first, and then warming it up with hot water
• Avoid using bottled gas room heaters – as they create dampness in your home.

Another important aspect of preventing dampness is creating an affective ventilation system for your home. Proper ventilation is the normal escape route for moist air.

As the air in your house circulates, it is drawn outside through open windows, doors, air bricks, and chimneys. If this air is prevented from escaping the house will become saturated and will condense on a cold surface in your home. Consider making these changes in ventilation:

• Help change your ventilation by opening windows and installing screens
• Extractor fans create constant airflow and ventilation, consider installing them
• To prevent moist air from circulating, keep kitchen and bathroom doors closed

Installing proper heating systems in your home is also critical to preventing moisture and dampness. By having warm air in your home, moisture can hold much more effectively, and can prevent air from condensing onto your furniture, upholstery, walls, and floors.

Loft insulation, wall insulation, and double glazing are also great options for those looking to keep heat in their homes longer – and ultimately, your dampness problem will become a thing of the past. Eliminating dampness in your home can improve the energy efficiency of your home – which can ensure a more comfortable living environment, and, most importantly, help you spend less on your heating bill each month.