This Is Why Your Damp House Is Wrecking Your Health!

Worried about your toddler’s constant bouts of allergies? Frequent wheezing and cough complaints in your family? Being common problems in metro cities, we often blame these on increasing pollution and weather changes.
However, the real culprit could be leakage and damp inside your home!

Painting and home beautification are always prioritised over waterproofing, which is often relegated to the non-essential category. However, any delay in repairing that small overhead tank leak or those inside your old bathroom pipes could cause a variety of health problems in your family.

Exposure to damp and mould occurring due to water leakage is known to cause nasal stuffiness, throat irritation, eye irritation, and even skin rashes. Over time, mould can even cause severe chronic problems like asthma and lung illnesses.

Health risks

Research now suggests that there is sufficient evidence to link indoor exposure to mould and dampness on walls with upper respiratory tract symptoms, cough, or wheezing in healthy people. It can worsen asthma symptoms in people. There is also a possibility that mould exposure can result in respiratory illnesses or shortness of breath in otherwise healthy children.

Watch out for these signs

Therefore, it is crucial to watch out for first signs of dampness or leakage in your house and get it corrected before your family’s health gets affected.

Mould can grow in bathrooms, ceiling corners, damp patches on walls, ceiling tiles, kitchen cabinets with leakage around it, wallpaper with a water leak on the wall behind and so on.

Cause of dampness on walls

However, cleaning up or wiping damp patches on the walls is not the answer. Caused by excess moisture, mould will keep recurring till you correct the source of the dampness. Moisture in buildings is caused mainly due to leaking pipes, rising damp in basements or ground floor, ageing structures, or seepage due to damaged roofs, window frames, and the terrace. In a newly constructed building, dampness may occur because the water used in construction may not have properly dried out.

If mould is growing in your home, you need to clean up the mould and fix the moisture problem.

Here is how to do it:

• Keep humidity levels in your home low. An air conditioner or dehumidifier will help to do this. Bear in mind that humidity levels change over the course of a day and so this needs to be tracked.
• Be sure your home has enough ventilation. Use exhaust fans which vent outside your home in the kitchen and bathroom. Air the room when the weather is sunny.
• Make sure you don’t dry clothes inside the house. This will cause mould to worsen.
• Do a thorough check of your terrace. See if any rain pipes are clogged. Accumulation of rain on terrace will cause water to leak into the building structure. Fix any minor cracks with a good waterproofing product.
• Fix any leaks inside the bathroom. Sometimes gaps between bathroom tiles can cause water to leak and cause dampness. Treat tiles with a good solution like ROFF to close gaps prevent leakage.
• Add mould inhibitors to paints before painting and use mould-killing products in bathrooms.
• Remove or replace carpets and upholstery from damp rooms because that can spread the moisture.

Many people avoid waterproofing before the first signs of leakage due to the slightly higher costs involved. However, one must remember that the health of your loved ones is priceless. Taking these small initiatives such as waterproofing will lead to healthier lives and help you avoid guilt in the long term if anything untoward happens.

This article is contributed by Dr Sanjay Bahadur, Global CEO, Construction Chemical Division, Pidilite Industries Ltd.

The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of RoofandFloor.