Advice on Damp Patches in Properties

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Advice on Damp Patches in Properties:
In this article I'm going to give you some advice for dealing with damp patches in your properties.
When I say damp patches, I'm not really talking about rising damp, where you end up with a 'tide mark' around the bottom of the wall, typically the front and back walls. Rising damp is quite straightforward to identify and deal with.
What I'm going to focus on is what I would call 'one off' damp patches. These are the ones that just seem to appear from nowhere, often after you've carried out a refurbishment or conversion.
The reason for these 'ad hoc' damp patches is usually one of two reasons. The first is that you may have an ongoing water ingress problem into the property, for example water running down inside the chimney breast, or a defect on the exterior of the property. This ought to be reasonably easy to see and repair.
However the other common reason for these damp patches appearing in refurbished properties, often after several months, is because there was actually damp plaster originally there prior to the refurb taking place. It may have been damp back when you bought the property and you just didn't notice it, or maybe it got damp whilst the building works were taking place.
When the plaster has broken down after becoming wet, the salt dries out from the plaster on the warmer side (the room side) and these are the damp patches you see on the walls. Unfortunately in these cases, there is really only one remedy and that is to hack off the damp plaster (plus a foot or two around the sides) and replace it with a sand and cement render with a chemical waterproof additive that stops anything else coming through.
If that's not appropriate in your case, and you just want to deal with the problem in the shorter term, then at a minimum you need to be using a matte paint which is breathable and allows the wall to dry out, but you will need to factor in a clean up and repaint on a regular basis.

[@Hew.Jarsol]

Yes this makes sense.

[@zaschabresilley7684]

Really insightful and helpful video - thank you!

[@martin-rapley]

Thanks Zascha

[@RefurbishmentMastery]

Thanks Zascha you can also find us on Facebook facebook.com/refurbishmentmastery/ Cheers!

[@yogesh7784]

Great video

[@yogesh7784]

Great video

[@martin-rapley]

Thanks Yogesh