Risks:

The risks of water damage are often serious and, above all, undesirable. These include, for example, mould growth, which unfortunately occurs quite often and is often difficult to treat. Furthermore, your beautiful wallpaper can peel or curl, which is often very costly and anything but beautiful and, above all, healthy. Damage can also occur, such as mould stains, which do not look good. However, it can be much worse if the moisture penetrates your brickwork or damages your metal supports, causing them to rust and become brittle over time.

What plays a major role financially: the increasingly expensive heating costs over time, which may not necessarily be noticeable at first.

But - as a final point - damage to furniture or decoration is of course also a factor, because unfortunately in many cases it is not just the walls of your house or flat that are damaged, other important objects can also be irreparably damaged by water.

Causes:

You're probably wondering why walls get wet. There are various reasons for this. On the one hand, there could be inadequate external sealing or the use of unsuitable building materials when building a house or flat. If you are often cold and therefore do not ventilate well, it may be warm in your home, but this behaviour is not conducive to dry walls. Conversely, it is also counterproductive not to heat.

However, if you have no thermal insulation or inadequate thermal insulation, this can also be a cause of damp walls.

A final very obvious cause is a defective rain gutter or a demolished downpipe. Of course, the recent flood disasters have not only caused wet walls for many people, but also much more dramatic consequences.

Measures:

Now you're probably wondering what you can do about damp walls. Of course, there is no single best solution, as it depends on the individual cause of your damp walls. What is recommended is that you don't try to save money and do it yourself, because if you are unsure and lack knowledge, you are only responsible for combating the symptoms and not getting to the root of the problem. As you can imagine, this is not helpful and ultimately not beneficial. The result is recurring mould, for example. Nevertheless, we would like to give you three options that could be undertaken if you have damp walls at home. The first option would be to dry out your brickwork. Another option would be to repair or replace the internal or external waterproofing of your masonry. The last option would be to have cracks sealed by a professional. If you are unsure, always seek advice from a professional. They specialise in this and will definitely be able to help you.

What should you bear in mind?

You should definitely make sure that the heating is correct. This includes, for example, ensuring that all rooms are heated all year round. It is also important that you ventilate regularly. This means that you should not tilt your windows, but ventilate them three times a day for around five minutes.

Insurance:

Do you have damp walls and have suffered damage as a result? You may be wondering whether your insurance will pay for such damage, right? Basically, it's important to know that you need supplementary insurance to your essential buildings insurance. Only then will the damage to your damp walls be covered. But BEWARE: the costs are not always covered, even if you have this supplementary insurance. So find out beforehand whether this damage is also listed in your insurance contract.