It's important to treat dampness as soon as you're aware of it to prevent major damage. Although it might seem costly to fix dampness, it will cost you far more if it's left for more damage to occur. It's also important to realise that there are options available to treat damp effectively and completely prevent the problem from coming back again.

In this article we'll look at how you can treat damp yourself and the ways in which you can control it.  Damp-proofing your home can be done yourself if you're a keen DIY enthusiast. However, it's a good idea to research it all before you start any work. You may also need to hire machinery to get the job done properly and in good time.

DIY Damp Proofing

Carrying out damp-proofing yourself can be a fairly complex task but there's nothing stopping you from giving it a go. However, make sure you know where the problem is coming from. Many inexperienced DIY enthusiasts don't realise how the moisture is entering the building and spend a lot of money and time damp-proofing the wrong area. Sometimes you might have to damp-proof more than one area to remove the problem completely.

Modern buildings have damp proofed courses built into the cavity walls and floors. This is easy to incorporate whilst building the property but very difficult to add afterwards. You might have to remove your walls in order to add an extra waterproof membrane which will be a challenging task to anyone inexperienced.

However, if you do continue with treating dampness in your property be sure to use the right water resistant damp proof membrane.  You need to enforce a barrier that's completely water resistant and won't allow and moisture to pass through or round it. You also need to make sure you have the right tools to cut the materials into shape.

Damp Control

If you have a property and it's already suffering from dampness you'll need to carry out damp control. This can be a costly task but it all depends on where the moisture is coming into the property from. Treating damp can be simple if the source of the problem is minor such as near windows or doors. It might just be extra sealant that's required.

Once you've established where the dampness has originated from you can start to implement damp control. In very old buildings there might be no insulation in place or damp-proofing to keep moisture out. In which case; you'll need to install DPC in the walls and also in the flooring.