How to Remove Dampness of Walls in your Apartment

Wet wall or Dampness is common problem in apartment or residential buildings. Dampness often leads to the growth of molds and bacteria and creates an unhealthy environment for those who occupy it. Damp walls are unsightly, smelly and cause permanent damage to plaster, paint and finishes. Damp problems can be found all over the house such as in or around the roof, walls, floors, windows, doors or pipe work on any building. Any wall in contact with the ground can suffer from rising damp, thus affecting walls both inside and out. If there is attic space between the ceiling and the roof structure, then you definitely need to have attic ventilation.

Recommended Methods for eradicating dampness

One common mistake people often make is trying to paint over the water damaged spots on their walls. If your bathroom, kitchen or utility walls are always wet, it is recommended to keep the room dry and well-ventilated. Damp conditions in walls can be caused by chronic condensation problems and as a result of saturation and gravity particularly badly at the foot of the wall thus masking and exacerbating a rising damp problem . There are many methods or treatment used to protect the house from dampness. Following methods helps to eradicate the dampness problem in an existing building.

• Damp Proof Course: Install a proper Damp Proof Course (DPC), a continuous layer of damp proofing material, by removing a line of bricks close to floor level followed by insertion of plastic sheet along the same line of bricks by replacing the old mortar with waterproof mortar.

• Leak Proof: Make sure that rainy water does not penetrate through the joints of the structure. If there is attic space between the ceiling and the roof structure, then you definitely need to have attic ventilation.  Removing ventilation to increase the heat in the attic is a bad idea. Fit the joints of the rainy water pipes tightly and properly to avoid the leakages in the joints. Let all the sanitary and the water supply fittings be tight and leak proof.

• Well ventilation: If you have steam from the bathroom shower or from the kitchen, and if that steam isn’t vented to the outside, then you’re going to have wet walls.  That would normally be on walls that are fairly close to the bathroom or kitchen.  It may be that the moisture on the walls is more pronounced outside the bathroom or kitchen. Moisture and mold may develop more easily on flat latex paint, compared to the paint in the bathroom and kitchen.

• Re-plaster affected area: Re-plaster the affected area with a waterproof plaster or cement mixture. Place the “Delivery Tubes” of specific designs into the holes of the bricks and transfuse the liquid into the wall under the influence of gravity. Lay the water proofing membrane, on the top of the surface of existing floor, which acts as a barrier against dampness.

Recommended Products

The following brands of chemical are commonly used for the protection of dampness in building:

1. Dr.Fixit from Pidilite: The extensive product range is used for waterproofing and repair for both new & old constructions. Pidilite offers a wide range of constructions chemicals under the Dr. Fixit brand name.
2. M/s Chemisol Agencies: This can be used for filling racksjoints and gaps of windows, doors, concrete slab, masonary surface glass, tiles, pipes etc. It is especially useful at interior locations where seepage is already occurring.
3. M/s Choksey Chemicals: Used for sealing of cracks in buildings, roof, terraces, walls and concrete water tank. It is also used for sealing of joints in pipes, aluminum ducting to prevent leakage and small joints between window and door frames.
4. M/s Fosroc Chemicals: It is a rapid setting mortar prepacked dry powder. Instantly repairs mortar for running water leak.
5. M/s Chitra Insultec: It is one of most effective products for waterproofing treatment. It is observed that after Insultec coating was applied, there will not be needed any other waterproofing treatment which normally have done periodically.

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