Moisture prevention starts with effective sub-floor ventilation
Moisture is the enemy of every homeowner, despite the fact that humans breathe out moisture all the time. The problem is that moisture buildups in a space and creates mold, this is a fungus that can cause an array of health issues in humans.
But, it’s more than that. Damp in your home gets into the walls and the wood. This can cause wood rot which can affect the structural stability of your home. Damp that climbs up the walls will cause the interior decoration to become damp, allowing it to crumble off the wall, bubble, and generally look horrific.
That’s why you need to take steps to deal with the moisture.
Getting Under The Floor
Your first thought may be to get a dehumidifier, this will remove moisture from the air. However, while this may help it is not the root of the issue.
Moisture enters your home in any way it can but it builds up in enclosed spaces. The gap under the floor is enclosed, if not properly ventilated then the air will become increasingly moist. It will then stick to the walls and start o climb into your house, this is generally referred to as rising damp.
The reason it is such an issue is that it’s often not known about until the problem has become severe. If you have moisture under your floors and you can’t or don’t usually enter this space, then you won’t realize you have an issue until you start seeing mold at the bottom of your walls.
At this stage, the damp will have taken hold and started to cause issues throughout your home.
Dealing With Under Floor Damp
The first thing to understand is that moving air helps to prevent damp, especially if cool air is being brought in to push the damp air out. It’s worth noting that there are different types of subfloor ventilation, you need to choose the one that suits your home best.
The basic version is simply to vents, ideally on opposite sides of the house. These create a cross breeze that allows air to flow under the floor and moving the damp air. However, this is not very effective if there is no breeze or the dampness of the air is the same under the house as outside.
That’s when you need a powered system. This still uses two vents but the air is sucked in through one of the vents and you can control when this happens. Effectively this will allow you to pull in colder air which absorbs the moisture under your floor before exiting the other side.
When the air outside is already warm and full of moisture you simply don’t have the ventilation system running. It’s best to have a timer that allows the ventilation fan to run overnight.
It’s worth noting that you can also add a moisture extractor to the ventilation fan, making this an even more efficient system and protecting your home, as well as your health.
