What is Rising Damp?

What is rising damp?

Rising damp is the common name for water that seeps through a building’s fabric and brick walls after being absorbed from the nearby ground. We refer to this mechanism as capillary action.

If you have rising damp in your home, this suggests that a damp proof course that should be protecting your ground floor walls from groundwater intrusion is either cracked, bridged, or absent. Naturally, your interior walls will develop damp stains as a result but rising moisture might actually be a more serious issue with your home.

What causes rising damp?

Often, rising damp is caused by a damp proof channel that has failed, been bridged, or is completely absent. Older properties frequently experience rising damp, a problem that is uncommon in recent construction. Typically, when a property exhibits symptoms, the Damp Proof Course (DPC) has been compromised, but depending on the building’s location and environment, this may not always be the case.

What does rising damp look like?

Rising damp is typically first identified by the harm to a building’s interior walls. Wallpaper has a tendency to become loose and plaster and paint might deteriorate. At the point where ground water has reached, a noticeable stain is often visible on the wall in the shape of a tide mark.

Externally, the walls may develop white salt streaks and the mortar may disintegrate.

Several important factors determine the height that the water reaches. These include the rate of evaporation and the brick and mortar’s pore structure. The water will be able to climb higher in masonry with a higher proportion of fine pores than it can in masonry with fewer pores. Rising damp can occur up to 1.5 metres and, in certain extremely rare cases, much higher.

How to treat rising damp

The most common and effective way to treat rising damp is to install a remedial damp proof course. This is typically done by injecting a water repellent damp proof cream into the mortar bed joint of walls that are affected.

Treating rising damp will ensure the walls in your home dry out and rising damp is remedied. At Matheson Damp Services, we have over 17 years of experience in providing professional and affordable damp proofing and specialist damp solutions. If you have rising damp in your property, it’s important to call in experienced damp proof specialists.

Call us now on 07898 010 682 to book a damp survey in central Scotland.