How to get rid of dampness in a private. How to deal with dampness in a country house. Causes of high humidity

The problem of indoor dampness is not as simple as it might seem. Excessive humidity not only creates an unpleasant atmosphere for life, but also has a destructive effect on the building itself, household items and living organisms.

Dealing with dampness is often a time-consuming process that requires significant efforts and costs.

According to the standards for residential premises, the permissible level of relative humidity is 40-60%. If the moisture content in the air becomes higher, it can negatively affect the quality of life in the home.

First of all, the harm that dampness causes to people living in the room is taken into account. In humid air, fungi, mold spores and other pathogenic microorganisms spread intensively, which enter the human body through the lungs and skin. Even if they do not cause specific diseases, they worsen overall health:

Colds become more frequent and more severe.
Allergic manifestations intensify.
Painful weakness occurs.
Working capacity is deteriorating.

An unfavorable atmosphere forms in the room. A specific smell of dampness arises, which eats into clothes and furniture. The shelf life of food products is reduced, especially bread, cereals, flour.

Almost the entire housing environment suffers:

Door frames and floor coverings are deformed.
The walls are stained with mold and mildew.
Wallpaper bulges and falls off the walls.
Clothes and bedding in the closet take on a musty smell.
Products made of leather and wood, books damp and deteriorate.

Where does dampness come from in an apartment and a private house

The most common reason for dampness in an apartment is poorly functioning ventilation or lack of it. Possible reasons:

The ventilation hole is covered with wallpaper.
The path to the air is blocked by furniture standing close to the walls.
In the process of installing kitchen equipment, an unsuccessful layout of the ventilation ducts was carried out.

Often the source of moisture is in the bathroom. With an inspection of this room, you can begin to search for excess water at home.

If there are stains on the ceiling or walls, you may be flooded by neighbors from above.
Moisture on the floor indicates a problem with the water or sewer pipes. If they are sewn into boxes, this prevents the leak from being immediately noticed.
Laundry hung to dry evaporates a lot of moisture in a small bathroom.

There can be many reasons for the dampness of an apartment, and they must be dealt with systematically. Some of them depend on the construction of the whole house and its condition. In multi-storey buildings, the management company is contacted in such cases:

flooding the basement;
leaking roof;
poorly sealed walls;
improper insulation of walls and floors.

In a private home, there are other problem areas that the homeowner is responsible for. These are poorly located gutters, when water enters the basement against the wall, or closed cesspools located next to the house - septic tanks, if their tightness is broken.

The humidity in the house is influenced by the climate of the lower floors. Groundwater, which has penetrated into the basement, and even the pool or sauna located on the ground floor, have a negative impact.

Damp control

It is possible and necessary to take measures to reduce the content of water vapor in the air. It is not only about improving living conditions, but also about health care. Both the house itself and the things in it will remain safe and usable for a long time in a dry atmosphere.

Elimination of the causes of dampness on the ground floors

For residents of the first floors, the main reason for dampness in the apartment is the basement constantly flooded with water. Utilities should deal with the elimination of such emergency conditions. If they cannot cope with this, or defects lie in the foundation of the house, residents have to solve the problem on their own.

It helps the device of a coating or gluing waterproofing of the floor, using waterproofing plasters. At the same time, you can achieve high-quality insulation of the ceiling in the basement.

On the upper floors

The problematic place of the apartments on the upper floors is the roof. A flat roof without slopes often leaks. Ceiling waterproofing will not help here, since moisture will simply go into the walls. Better to insulate the floor in the attic or technical floor.

In a private house

A private house is exposed to moisture literally from all sides. To create a comfortable environment in it, first of all, you need to take care of arranging the correct drainage system on the site. This will help lower the water table and reduce the risk of dampness in the basement.

Much attention should be paid to the external and internal waterproofing of the foundation and basement.

Finally, the condition of the roof and gutters directly affects the dampness in the house. On all floors, moisture penetrates the walls due to poorly sealed interpanel seams. This construction defect can be corrected only with the help of professional repairmen.

Actions that each person can do at home: dry clothes on the balcony or purchase a washing machine with a drying function, as well as turn on heating and air drying devices in time.

Installation of forced ventilation and frequent ventilation

Synthetic finishing materials and sealed glass units disrupt the natural air circulation in the apartment. Moisture accumulates in the room with no way to escape. On the upper floors, residents also suffer from poor draft in the ventilation shafts.

Airing helps well in such a situation, but in the cold season it is impossible to keep the windows constantly open. It is recommended to build modern ventilation mechanisms into plastic windows, for example, the so-called alpine window.

This device is able to ensure the exchange of indoor and outdoor air when the windows are closed.

Another useful device is hygro-controlled grilles, which are installed in ventilation ducts to regulate the intake air flow depending on humidity.

Installing forced draft ventilation requires effort and cost. But it completely solves the problem of removing moist air from the apartment. Such ventilation consumes energy and is slightly noisy, but it is very useful. The minimum option for forced ventilation is to install an electric fan in the kitchen ventilation duct.

Recuperators are built into the exhaust systems. In them, the cold air coming from the street is heated in the process of heat exchange with the removed air, which is already warm from the apartment. This device helps to save energy for space heating.

Additional heating and thermal insulation

The air in a heated room feels drier. Additional heating of an apartment is an effective and widely available way to combat dampness. Any source is suitable for heating: sunlight, underfloor heating, a heated air conditioner or an oil radiator. An electric heated towel rail will help create a dry atmosphere in the bathroom. Additional heating devices will easily dry the air in the room and get rid of the musty smell.

If the moisture has already been absorbed into the floor and walls, you need to warm it up longer using powerful devices. Sometimes, despite drying out, repairs are inevitable.

Heating can be dispensed with or less intense with proper wall insulation. Thermal calculations show that the thickness of the insulation made of extruded polystyrene foam 100-150 mm will provide sufficient insulation for any wall.

The second option for effective thermal insulation is a vapor-permeable insulation, for example, mineral wool or a ventilated facade.

Repair as a means to combat dampness and odor

For a very damp room, drying alone is not enough. Mold and mildew deeply affect walls, and repairs are indispensable.

For modern renovation, try to choose natural finishing materials. They are vapor-permeable and remove moisture from the room to the outside.

If the moisture is caused by flaws in the building structure, the walls must be insulated not only from the inside, but also outside, and the seams at the joints of the panels must be sealed.
In a potentially humid environment, grout and plasters with antifungal additives are used.
The walls are treated with anti-mold agents and then re-plastered.
Severely damaged or deformed floors are replaced with new ones.

If possible, give up plastic windows or equip them with modern ventilation devices. It is better to place furniture at some distance from the walls so that it does not block the flow of air to the ventilation openings.

Devices - air dryers

Technical means are widely used to remove moisture from the air. For a kitchen or a room, it is enough to purchase a dehumidifier with a capacity of 10 liters per day. If a humidity sensor is built into the device, it will be able to adapt itself to changing external conditions.

This dehumidifier automatically monitors the atmosphere and regulates the humidity in the room. The air will not dry out, and excess electricity will not be consumed.

It is convenient to have a portable dehumidifier to use alternately in different places.

The air in the bathroom is well dried with a heated towel rail, if there are no constantly wet towels hanging on it. Also, the humidity level is successfully reduced by the air conditioner. Finally, in the struggle for dehumidification, heating devices are indispensable. The increase in their useful surface and the correct regulation of the heat supply have a beneficial effect on the climate in the apartment.

Application of cooker hoods

When cooking, liquids are intensively evaporated into the air. Therefore, the kitchen is one of the wettest areas in the apartment. There is usually a ventilation duct in the kitchen. But without the use of forced ventilation, its power may not be enough.

Therefore, electric kitchen hoods are installed above the stove, which direct the fumes into the ventilation. The power of the device must be suitable for the amount of vapor and the size of the room For a kitchen where food is prepared for the whole family every day, an extractor hood with a capacity of 500 m³ / hour will be sufficient.

For the causes of dampness in rooms, for methods of dealing with it, see the video.

How to get rid of dampness with folk remedies

Housewives have always tried to create a healthy atmosphere in the house. Therefore, there are many easy ways to get rid of dampness that are suitable for any home.

Cleaning products

If there is an excess of moisture in the room, all surfaces must be wiped dry after wet cleaning. This is especially true for the floors. It is recommended to wipe the surface of furniture after cleaning from dust with a light pink solution of potassium permanganate. After cleaning, the room should be well ventilated.

Those places where mold has managed to start are wiped with a rag dipped in a solution of bleach or vinegar. You can also spray the surface with a spray bottle solution. Bleach makes even damp corners unsuitable for fungi. Vinegar also works, which is essentially a weak acid. In addition, these substances kill the musty smell, and after airing the air becomes fresh.

Sorbents: salt, sugar, coffee

The old way to remove dampness from any room is to place substances there that absorb moisture from the air. The most popular and always at hand are such sorbents as coffee beans, salt, sugar. Poured into breathable bags, they are placed in different places. In the wardrobe, these products are laid out on the shelves in fabric bags, and open jars are placed in the pantry. Such moisture traps will help dry the apartment.

Silica gel

A modern moisture absorber - silica gel. It is produced in the form of transparent granules with a diameter of 2-6 mm. The porous structure of their surface allows them to absorb a large amount of water vapor from the air. Most types of silica gel are environmentally friendly and non-toxic.

This sorbent is poured in a layer into a pallet or packed in small bags that are laid out in problem areas. The silica gel saturated with moisture is reactivated by heating it to a temperature of 100-150 ° C.

Indoor plants that don't like moisture

Tropical plants require frequent watering and spraying. Such a home greenhouse can negate all efforts to drain an apartment. Evaporation from pots and leaves is quite intense. It is recommended to choose drought tolerant plants that do not need to be watered abundantly.

Also, aquariums, decorative fountains and other devices associated with water evaporation should not be installed in wet rooms.

Keeping humidity at a comfortable level is essential for human health. Clean dry air helps to keep the building and the decor in the apartment in good condition. Given the variety of means of dealing with dampness, everyone can choose from them the most suitable and effective. It takes some effort, but the right climate in your home is worth it.

Constant dampness in a room can damage floors, furniture, clothing and even human health. It is important to solve this problem as quickly as possible, otherwise, over time, dangerous mold will begin to develop. How to get rid of the smell of dampness in the apartment? Let's figure it out.

After the flood

Dampness in an apartment may appear after neighbors have flooded the ceiling, a pipe burst or a roof has leaked. If the room was flooded so much that repairs had to be done, then first of all, completely dry the rooms and treat all surfaces with a special primer.

If after the flood the humidity has only increased greatly, then put a heater or a special device for drying air in the room. Check for mildew on the ceiling, walls, or under the wallpaper. Found a fungus? Then you will have to carry out repairs, otherwise disputes will quickly spread throughout the apartment. Dry everything in the room: clothes, curtains, rugs, upholstered furniture, toys. If you live in a private house, then put these items outside on a sunny day, if in an apartment - then on the balcony.

In the bathroom

Damp and mildew in the bathroom on tiles or whitewash indicates poor ventilation. To get started, try to keep the doors open as often as possible so that any excess moisture can be weathered. Then clean the hood. If it is in poor condition, you will have to install a new one. It can also be equipped with an additional fan. A heated towel rail will help get rid of dampness in the bathroom. It will regularly heat up the indoor air and evaporate moisture.

In the basement

Often the basement is the cause of dampness in an apartment on the ground floor. Examine the pipes in the basement carefully for leaks. If liquid oozes from them, then it is worth repairing or completely replacing them. You will also need to treat all walls and ceiling with a waterproofing solution. It is impossible to remove dampness from the basement with folk remedies, so you need to contact specialists to solve the problem.

In the closet

As soon as you notice dampness in the closet, take all things out of it and dry them. Light cotton products will dry in a few hours, it will take more than one day for outerwear. All things need to be straightened and hung to speed up the process.

Wash the cabinet itself with water mixed with vinegar in a 1: 1 ratio. If you notice mold, add 1 tbsp. l. bleach in 1 liter of water and wipe the shelves and drawers with this solution. To remove mold from things, iron them through a damp cloth or use a steam generator.

How to remove damp smell

Any unpleasant odor can be easily removed with vinegar. Dilute it with water or use it neat. Moisten a cloth with it and wipe all accessible surfaces. It will also perfectly cope with the smell of dampness in the apartment of bleach. Dilute it with water in a 1: 5 ratio and wipe everything in the room.

Hydrogen peroxide is also effective at removing odors. Pour it into a spray bottle and spray around the room. Do not apply to painted walls or furniture - color may fade. Ammonia is another remedy for the smell of dampness. Mix it with water in a 1: 1 ratio and wipe down all surfaces in the apartment.

Sorbent substances, for example, activated carbon mixed with salt, will help get rid of the unpleasant odor. Sprinkle the product in bowls and place it around the apartment. Change the mixture every few days. In addition, you can mask the unpleasant odor with essential oils. Add them to the sorbent or periodically light the aroma lamp.

You can get rid of the smell of dampness in the apartment, but it is better not to allow this. Ventilate the apartment regularly and open the bathroom door at night. Turn on the heaters for a while during the rainy fall and spring. And never put damp items in the closet.

Damp spots on the ceilings, walls of a private house and wet corners most often appear with the approach of winter, when windows are opened less and less often to ventilate rooms, precipitation begins to fall more often, and the walls of buildings are almost not warmed up by the sun. Dampness in the house is a serious problem that must be dealt with, since it not only causes various diseases, but is also a favorite habitat for ticks, centipedes and fungi. Let's take a closer look at the question of how to get rid of dampness in the house.

How to get rid of dampness in the house - we follow the main rules!

If you do not know how to deal with such a serious nuisance as dampness in a private house, then following some important rules and advice, you can, if not get rid of it, then at least make it as minimal as possible. So:

Try to limit the use of various flammable substances as much as possible, as many of them form a large amount of moisture, such as paraffin.
Cover pots and pans when cooking, as they also give off a decent amount of moisture.
The bathroom has the highest humidity percentage. To avoid this, regularly ventilate it and clean the hood from dust and dirt in time.
The most common cause of dampness in a private home is frequent washing, drying clothes, poor ventilation and heating. Try not to dry the washed items indoors, but if there is no other way out, then do it near the location of the hoods!
If the problem of dampness in the house is persistent, insulate the walls of the attic and the walls of the house with special porous materials to prevent moisture build-up.

The main causes of dampness in a private house

Due to improper or insufficient ventilation, condensation, high humidity and a musty, unpleasant smell appear in the house, as a result of which the windows become foggy, the corners become damp, and the walls become damp. How to get rid of dampness in the house? To eliminate all this, ventilate the room more often and use additional fans. An unpleasant and musty smell in the house is the result of the formation of mold, which is extremely dangerous for human health, since it emits a large number of harmful spores that a person inhales with the air. Use an antifungal agent to get rid of mold. Just do not forget that all antifungal drugs are toxic, so you must strictly follow the instructions for them and be careful! Purchase a household dehumidifier that is ideal for eliminating dampness in your home. It is convenient to use and easy to transfer from one room to another. Poor foundation waterproofing is a common cause of dampness in a home. The fact is that pound water rising to a height of 1.5 m does not penetrate the walls of the building only because of the horizontal waterproofing of the foundation. If not, moisture penetrates the walls. Traces of water can be seen in moldy, damp corners, above the baseboard, on deteriorated wallpaper and, accordingly, on fallen plaster. Fighting dampness in a private home is not an easy and sometimes expensive undertaking. Be that as it may, having identified the cause of this misfortune, you can begin to use effective methods of dealing with it and then, for sure, come out of it as a winner! Comfort and coziness in a dry and warm house!

Not every one of us pays attention to the level of humidity in the home, but it is this indicator, along with the air temperature and illumination, that participates in creating a microclimate and directly affects the state of health. Both low and high humidity are harmful.

Optimal values. If we focus on sanitary standards, then the normal level of relative humidity for a dwelling varies from 40 to 60%. In winter, when hot radiators dry up the air, humidity “drops” to 15-20%, humidifiers come to the rescue. But in the warm season, the indicators often go off scale in the opposite direction, which leads to unpleasant consequences.

Effects. The negative impact of high humidity on the human body is not exaggerated. Firstly, heavy humid air is contraindicated for people with cardiovascular diseases, hypertensive patients and asthmatics. Secondly, in combination with an increased air temperature (more than 25 ° C), high humidity provokes overheating of the body, and if the temperature is low, hypothermia.

In such conditions, harmful microorganisms and bacteria multiply with amazing speed. Even in healthy adults, breathing is disturbed, working capacity decreases, allergic reactions occur, let alone the "risk zone" - the elderly and young children.

High humidity leads to mold growth

In addition, high humidity in the apartment contributes to the appearance of mold and mildew on any surfaces, can ruin furniture, books, bed linen and mattresses, food (cereals, flour, vegetables). A persistent "boggy" smell appears in the house.

How to measure moisture level

A hygrometer is useful at home. This device, more like a digital alarm clock, controls the rise or fall of humidity.

Hygrometer - the simplest device for measuring humidity

However, you can find out whether the humidity is high or not, using ordinary water. Fill a transparent glass halfway and place in the refrigerator for a few hours (the "outlet" water temperature should not exceed 5 ° C). Place the vessel in the "test" room, away from household appliances and radiators, and observe for 5-10 minutes. Large drops of condensation on the sides of the container indicate that the room is humid.

Large drops are a sign of high humidity

How to deal with high humidity

First of all, you need to find and fix the problem. The following options are possible:

1. Inoperative ventilation. Hoods tend to break, and ventilation shafts tend to clog. And if in the warm season you can open the window to ventilate the room or kitchen, then in the winter this is problematic. Be sure to check the ventilation of the apartment or house. Install an extractor hood in the kitchen, a more powerful fan or baffle in the bathroom, if necessary.

2. Insufficient insulation or waterproofing. Poorly insulated and not waterproofed walls and floor, like a sponge, absorb moisture from the outside, becoming covered with condensation and "giving out" all this into the room. Constantly damp wallpaper or "chomping" linoleum is a reason to start repairing.

3. Lack of heating. The fastest damp rooms are heated to a minimum. Installing an additional radiator or purchasing an oil heater solves this problem.

4. The presence of sources of moisture. Perhaps the most common reason for high humidity in an apartment: poorly installed double-glazed windows that collect condensation, errors when connecting a washing machine or dishwasher, leaking pipes or plumbing. "Walk" through all the nodes and connections, if necessary, replace or repair problem areas.

Incorrectly installed windows are the most common cause

If in an apartment, treat the glass with a special composition: 5 parts of transparent dishwashing gel or liquid soap, 3 parts of glycerin, 1 part of turpentine, and then rub them until shiny with a clean rag.

Prevention of high humidity

Elementary, but effective preventive measures will not be superfluous, even if everything is in order in the house with humidity.

Be sure to ventilate the apartment (even in winter) for at least half an hour a day.
Heat the rooms evenly, preventing the already heated air from getting into the "chilled" room, creating a sharp temperature drop.
Do not dry laundry in living quarters and in the bathroom, it is best to do this on a balcony or loggia.
Use simple yet powerful absorbents. Place bags with table salt, rice, coffee beans in closets, on shelves in a toilet, bathroom, kitchen.
Operate the dehumidifier periodically. This unit passes excessively humid air through filters, which helps in maintaining a natural and healthy microclimate.

An example of an electric air dryer

Excessive dampness often becomes a diagnosis in private houses, urban high-rises and summer cottages. In the cold season, it manifests itself as mold on the walls and windows. Many owners start and end the fight only with the fungus, because it sharply negatively affects the health of the residents. In this case, the root cause - high humidity - is ignored, so the mold soon returns. Only an analysis of the situation and an integrated approach will help get rid of dampness.

Causes of high humidity

There are several hundred types of household mold in nature. The main factor in their appearance in a residential area is excessive dampness. The fungus forms in places with poor ventilation on surfaces prone to sudden temperature changes. In other words, if your house has a cold wall, a dark coating will appear in poorly ventilated corners, you just have to turn on the heating system.

In high-rise buildings, mold can occur due to global disturbances in the air circulation system. Test the draft in your ventilation ducts with a regular match. Its weakening or termination occurs for the following reasons:

builders' mistakes at the stage of building a house;
illegal interference with the integrity of the channels of your vertical neighbors;
failure of parts of the system due to old age at home.

Fungal plaque appears due to dampness

It is difficult to eliminate ventilation in a high-rise building. Home management companies usually only go for this if a global redevelopment or reconstruction of a building is planned. You will have to rely on folk remedies for removing dampness in the room. In the private sector, such problems are relatively easier to solve, because everything depends only on the owner.

Attention! On the ground floors of apartment buildings or in private houses, dampness may appear due to flooding of the basement by a burst of water supply, groundwater or poor thermal insulation between the wall and the foundation. Mold forms at the bottom of the wall.

Step 1. Fighting fungal plaque

To get rid of dampness, first of all, you need to identify and eliminate all fungal plaque on the walls. Delay can lead to the development of diseases. Spores of the fungus with air enter the lungs and disrupt the respiratory system. Dampness and mold can cause acute respiratory infections, bronchitis, asthma and other respiratory diseases up to tuberculosis. In addition, it suppresses the immune system. For residents of the house, especially children and the elderly, this is manifested in a deterioration in well-being, allergic reactions and exacerbation of all kinds of ailments.

Attention! A dark bloom that appears due to dampness may not immediately be seen. But a pungent moldy smell will immediately give away the problem.

During the cleaning process, it is important not only to clean, but also to disinfect all surfaces where there is a fungus. Use any suitable means:

chlorine bleach and other chemicals;
vinegar;
hydrogen peroxide;
soda;
ammonia;
tea tree oil, etc.

Attention! Wear gloves and a mask with all types of anti-damp and mildew cleansers.

It is important that close contact does not allow large quantities of spores to enter your airways. When using special store products, never mix one with the other. This can cause a chemical reaction with dangerous consequences. A video will help you understand in more detail how to deal with mold and dampness.

If mold has extensively covered the surface of the wallpaper, prepare to rip it off the wall. The mycelium of the fungus is under the paper layer. There is no means to kill him without damaging the wallpaper itself. In this case, the plaster will probably also have to be removed. First, thoroughly clean the surface from the fungus, and then treat with an antiseptic. For example, an aqueous solution of office glue (1: 4) or urea. Before any further work to get rid of dampness, the wall section must be completely dry.

Council. For the effective action of the disinfectant, heat the cleaned walls to +50 ° C.

Step 2. Finding and eliminating the root cause of dampness

Diagnosing the problem is the key to getting rid of the dampness. Take the glass, press it against the wall and fix it in this position. After 2-3 hours, clean up and check the surface:

dry - a source of indoor humidity;
wet - dampness comes from outside.

In the second case, it's easier to figure it out. Your task is to reduce the temperature drop, from which the walls suffer from dampness. There are two ways to do this. Better to use them in combination.

Thermal insulation of the wall. Cover it with breathable insulation. Today, many people choose external insulation, but experts advise first of all to carry out work inside.
Check and, if necessary, upgrade the heating system. Perhaps it is cluttered or not powerful enough to warm up and protect certain corners of the house from dampness.

Council. Large-sized furniture often becomes the reason for the formation of harmful plaque if it interferes with the normal ventilation of the wall adjacent to the street. Take care of the rearrangement.

Folk ways to get rid of dampness due to poor ventilation:

Place bags of sugar or salt.
Place small containers of potassium chloride in the corners.
Heat and lean bricks against the wall. Repeat until the surface is free of moisture. Use 1 brick no more than 3-4 times, then it should dry out.
Treat the wall in 2-3 layers with a decoction of laundry soap (bring 100 g / l to a boil and cool). After drying, apply the following solution with a brush: 100 g of alum per 6 liters of water.

Attention! Do not use sprays or other antifungal agents or air conditioner to dry your home.

You can get rid of dampness only by accurately determining its cause. When the fungus and moisture are removed, do not forget about further prevention.