There’s an age-old theory which says that “water created mankind to transport it to places it could not get to alone”. While ‘we’ may have done this, we didn’t invite it into our homes to wreak havoc as it so commonly does. Insurance companies will cover water damage – dependant if the criteria meet their small-print conditions.
The most common forms of water damage are from external blockages that impact internal walls, so don’t forget to compile a thorough maintenance audit that runs at least four times a year. Others can be caused by forces of nature, or manufacturing error – either way, it may be down to you to cover the repair costs in full.
Some issues listed below can be aesthetic and easy to fix, others not. Let’s look at the top five instances of water torture at home from structural, white-goods or manual error:
Condensation and Damp
The daddy of all visual water torture at home – 365 days a year. Condensation and damp, which in themselves have different causes, crawl up walls and can discolour paintwork and wallpaper with ease. The smell associated with damp and condensation can be a risk to your health, and if you’re selling a property it can be a risk to your bank balance’s health, too.
With so many products on the market, not just paints and coatings, but dehumidifiers and ventilation systems that can help air circulate around properties better – reducing the risk of mould, algae and fungal growth – this problem is easy to resolve, quickly and cheaply. Don’t, however, simply wash the walls and expect that to be the end of it.
Even new-builds, which may not have taken air circulation into consideration, won’t look so pristine and plush for long. Forget air fresheners and other remedial fixes – tackle the problem head on with a professional product, appliance, or contractor solution.
Cut Edge Corrosion
Using cladding on commercial properties and homes is becoming more inventive and creative year upon year, though metal sheet and Plastisol cladding is still extremely popular. Water torture for cladding is cut edge corrosion, and it can be costly and cause a lot of disruption for a commercial property in getting it fixed. There can be a lot of downtime for new sheet cladding to be installed, so think repair before replace!
When cladding sheets are cut at manufacturer depots, the protective coating is breached across the cut-edge. It’s only slight, but this exposure to oxygen and moisture can cause rust (cut edge corrosion) along horizontal panelling. Whilst it’s not advisable to climb up onto roofing to check for cut edge corrosion and rust damage, you should employ a specialist surveyor to do this for you at least twice a year.
Rusted cladding can be repaired fairly easily (dependant on the damage) with a little bit of manual work and a new weather/waterproofing coating.
Leaking Roofs and Guttering
A leaking roof can be extreme water torture, with its audible dripping and slow visual destruction of a ceiling’s paint job. The problem with a leaking roof is that the roof damage is not always directly above where the leak is. Water can travel through cracks in brick and other substrates, to reach the damp patch on the ceiling.
For small leaks, a manual fix is possible, but during stormy weather, if several roof tiles come loose, or serious physical damage occurs, you’d be best calling a roofing contractor to assess and repair the damage.
Clearing and keeping a regular maintenance check on guttering should be the norm for all homes and commercial properties. Post-autumn, it doesn’t take much for guttering to get blocked with leaves and debris, where water can then affect cladding and cause cut edge corrosion, or literally pour down walls, causing internal damp problems and even rising damp.
Rising Damp
Rising damp is caused by external faults, ground water drainage, and old/poor structural foundations. Water from the ground can penetrate a building and through capillary water action rise through a wall’s substrate.
Rising damp is most noticeable in basements or ground floor rooms, although the source can also come from the damp proof barrier in a wall being breeched/bypassed by steps, ramps or other adjoining structures, through which water can be ‘passed’ into and above the DPB.
Water torture from rising damp is worse during rainy periods, or when snowing, as water can pool and drainage flaws can delay it moving away from a building’s foundations.
New builds should have damp proof barriers installed, but for renovation work, it is possible to ‘install’ these yourself. Do not, however, render them useless by building against a wall and creating a through-passage for water to get into your home.
Broken Appliances
Broken appliances could be user error or manufacturing faults – either way, when water is spraying across the room from a burst pipe, it doesn’t matter who’s at fault, it’ll be you cleaning up the mess.
“Calling the plumber” on Christmas Day can be extremely expensive, and it is best advised to do regular maintenance checks on internal water-pipes, taps, white goods and bath/sink plughole drainage, to avoid making ‘the call’ at the most inconvenient times.
Basic common sense says to not overload washing machines, leave freezer doors open, forget about the running bath, and more – but accidents still happen.
Water torture from broken appliances are arguably the easiest to avoid, although mould, damp and algae can still form and grow in unsuspecting places – so check behind bath panelling, under-sink-cupboards, behind tumble-dryers and washing machines, as well as fridge and freezers for minor damage that can cause major headaches over time.
*Images from Secret garden House by Wallflower Architecture + Design
