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Be kind to your house – how to avoid problems with damp

Sometimes it can be useful to think of a house as being like a human body. If one part of the house is not working very well, it could affect the condition and health of the rest of the house. Gutters and spouting are a bit like our internal plumbing – they remove excess water from the building, keeping the walls and roof spaces dry and in good condition. If they are blocked, trouble could be on the horizon.

This winter in Christchurch has been very wet. Community Energy Action assessors Les Norris and Darci Westergard have seen record levels of dampness in many houses over the last four months. This is likely to be related to a high water table and very damp soil conditions under houses. However, one recent CEA client had been experiencing problems with moisture pouring down an internal south facing bedroom wall. Les Norris spotted that the gutters and down pipes around the entire house were blocked with leaves, moss and wind blown humus which had accumulated over a long period of time. As a result rain water was draining away only very slowly. In periods of heavy rainfall, it was likely that the gutters overflowed and some of the excess rainwater would have seeped into the adjacent building fabric, eventually soaking through to the internal bedroom. This can be a problem especially for south-facing walls which never benefit from the drying effects of the sun. The property owner has since cleared the gutters and has reported a significant improvement in the levels of dampness in the bedroom.

Keeping gutters and down-pipes clear of rubbish is a mucky job. But done regularly it can be a relatively quick, painless way of ensuring the long term health and well-being not only of your home, but of the people who live in it.

August 2006