Claiming dampness in dwellings

Types of dampness in dwellings

One of the most widespread and annoying problems in homes is damp; Almost 20% of the buildings in Spain suffer from this pathology; Not only are they an anti-aesthetic stain on the walls and ceilings of our house, giving it a deteriorated, neglected and old appearance, but they can also negatively affect the health of the inhabitants of the house, and can even affect the reinforcement and resistance of the structural elements of the building, through oxidation;

Depending on the origin of the dampness, it is classified into different types;

Responsibility for dampness in buildings

The overwhelming majority of dampness that appears in new dwellings is due to a lack of foreseen waterproofing, insulation and watertightness measures in the Project, to a defective execution on site, and to an inadequate supervision of the technicians involved in the whole construction process;

It is common to say that it is due to poor maintenance, a lack of ventilation, a problem with a particular pipe bursting, but most of them have their origin in a defect committed during the construction process;

We can also find other damages in homes due to poor construction processes such as bad odors, air leaks, illegal parking spaces or poor acoustic insulation, among others.

Damp not only affects the appearance of the building, but also directly affects the health and comfort of our home, and can even have a negative impact on the health of its inhabitants; A room with dampness undermines the environment we breathe and can damage our respiratory tract, especially if we have a previous pathology;

Moisture can also cause corrosion in structural elements of a wall, rusting the reinforcement of a slab, which can also damage the stability and safety of the building, since the rusted reinforcement

Most frequent dampness in dwellings

The most common types of damp in dwellings are capillarity, filtration and condensation; The owners are not responsible for the damp, and should not bear the cost of repairing the damp;

Discard the usual answers used by promoters and builders that condensation damp is due to poor ventilation of the owners, capillary damp is due to water ingress caused by the last rains and filtration damp is due to a neighbour having left a tap running;

Unfortunately, it is very common nowadays to suffer from dampness in newly built dwellings; Mainly because it is poorly constructed; The most frequently occurring dampness in new buildings is condensation dampness; They appear as mould stains, condensed droplets in the corners of bedrooms, on window frames, because the walls have not been properly insulated in the construction process, to avoid the effect of thermal bridges; As the temperature difference is transmitted from the outside, the moisture droplets condense on the cold walls, forming that annoying dampness;