Moisture can damage your home and your health pretty quickly. If you don’t know what signs to look for, you might be letting water harm your property without even knowing it. The following will explore several clear signs that indicate you need to address the moisture in your home.
What Is Dampness?
Anytime there is moisture inside your home where there shouldn’t be moisture, this is dampness. It can take the form of water in the basement or attic, wet spots on the wall or roof or flooring, or the softening of materials that don’t seem like they should be soft (often indicating dampness within). Dampness can help create the perfect environment for toxins like mold and mildew to grow and make you and your household sick. Mold releases harmful spores that, when breathed in, can result in mold poisoning or mold sickness. Dampness can also damage the structural integrity of your home, ruin your property value, and damage your belongings. Quite simply, any place in your home that shouldn’t be damp, but is, is a problem.
What Can Be Done About It?
The source of the dampness will need to be determined if you are to address the cause of it and prevent any future damage to your property or the people you love. Typically, treating damp involves a survey of some kind. You might already know where the moisture is coming from and how it’s getting in, but you also might have no idea while your wallpaper seems wet all of a sudden. A survey will involve a professional looking at the dampness and following its trail until the source of the problem is found. From that point, a suggestion will be made about the course of action you can take to eliminate your current dampness, clean up any damage, and prevent future dampness.
Pay Attention To Scent
One of the most commonly overlooked signs of damp is a musty smell. It is critical that if you smell something terrible in your home, musty or not, you don’t simply mask the scent with candles or cleaning products. The human body is incredibly intelligent, and if a scent is off-putting, that is likely because it is harmful to your health. A bad smell is your body’s way of telling you that the air where you are isn’t good to breathe in. If the stench is particularly bad, it’s a good idea to open your windows and get a cross breeze going (you want fresh outdoor air to help dilute the air you’ve got at the moment).
You also want to keep your blinds and curtains open as much as possible as light can sometimes kill the things that grow in damp, dark spaces. Finally, you want to get a dehumidifier running. This will help deal with some of the humidity in the air. It is important to note that none of these solutions target the root cause of your dampness; they are merely techniques to help make life a little more bearable until you figure out where the moisture is coming from and how to keep it from getting in.
Keep Your Eyes Open For Dark Patches Or Discolouration On Walls Or Plaster
Over time, water begins to stain the surfaces it is sitting on. If there are brownish or yellowish spots, dark patches, or unexplained discoloration on the walls or plaster of your home, this could indicate that there’s dampness.
Look For Mould Or Mildew
Mould typically looks like black, blue, or green splatters. There are over 1000 different types of mold, however, so be open to the possibility that the exact shades can vary. It’s also worth thinking about whether you’ve been experiencing any signs of mold illness.
Symptoms can include brain fog, trouble focusing, memory problems, headaches, excessive thirst, increased urination, fatigue, weakness, temperature regulation struggles, night sweats, unexplained muscle cramping, aches and pains in your joints, persistent nerve pain, metallic taste in your mouth, numbness or tingling, digestive issues like diarrhea, nausea, change in appetite, or abdominal pain, red eyes, light sensitivity, tremors, vertigo, asthma, sinus problems, a cough, or shortness of breath. As you can see, many of these symptoms are things that could start subtle and gradually increase. Mould sickness can develop into lung infections or respiratory illnesses.
Feel Along Walls, Floors, And Ceilings For Coldness Or Wetness
Before things get noticeably wet, they start to feel cold. Feel along your walls, ceiling, and floors for any hint of wetness or unexplained coldness. This will give you a good idea of whether there’s dampness.
The above signs and symptoms should give you a good idea of whether or not moisture is a problem in your home. It is important that even if you can’t see moisture damage but are feeling symptoms of mold sickness that you have your property investigated.