Housing, Insurance | Drained to remove moisture:

Knut Høgmo owns and rents a 70-year-old house in Trondheim. Two years ago, significant moisture damage was discovered in the basement.

– We began to notice in some places that there was moisture on the wall. It is an old house with a gray stone wall and no plastic in the background. Since the house is very old and the moisture came from the ground, we thought it would be wise to drain.

Also read: Hanna faced the great fear of all home buyers – then the craftsman said something that changed everything

The drainage was done properly, with insulation and drain pipes underneath at the lowest point, but it didn’t help much.

– After two years, it had gotten even worse than before. It was tight on the outside, but it drew moisture up and into the wall. The basement rooms were rendered uninhabitable, Høgmo says.

– Drainage does not help

– When the house is in moist soil, it rarely helps to insulate and drain. It’s completely impossible to solve this problem by isolating and draining, says Henning Becker at EPS Moisture Protection.

He has seen many cases similar to the ones described above and claims that drainage is often prescribed as a medicine anyway:

– Many drains because it says in the price that it is an old drain. But then they drain due to a salt rash or peeling in the basement. However, these are signs of what we call capillary moisture absorption, moisture that comes from moist soil, and against this, drainage does not help.

Also read: Langer to Home Builders: – A Continuous Lament

According to Becker, only the moisture resulting from surface water is resolved by drainage, as the flow of water moves away from the foundation wall.

– You put pipes in the ground to divert water from the surface, but the moisture in the ground is not removed. I’ve been to many houses where they have drained, and then it gets wet anyway.

Conflicts and damage to health

Moisture and water damage are by far the most common causes of conflict between the buyer and seller of a home. In 2017, between 40 and 45 percent of all cases were related to water or moisture damage, says home sellers insurance company Protector, there are more than twice as many cases as the next category on that list: construction. .

In 2015, Sintef Byggforsk reported that humidity is the most important cause of damage to buildings investigated by the institute and involved in three out of four damages.

Also read: The OBOS boss with a flashlight: people have to meet in smaller apartments

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health notes a number of health risks associated with living in damp houses. Residents of damp houses or houses with moisture and mold problems are at increased risk for respiratory illness / respiratory symptoms, respiratory infections and worsening asthma. It is estimated that there will be a 30-50 percent increase in respiratory problems related to risk factors related to humidity in homes, writes FHI in a full report on moisture damage in homes 2016.

The report is from a project in collaboration with If Boligsjekk. Researcher Anja Hortemo Høie from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health verified moisture damage in more than 10,000 household reports. She analyzed a total of 160,000 descriptions in 10,000 reports and found comments on humidity in 3,125 homes, or one in three homes. The report also says this:

• Of all houses, 27% had moisture damage that was recommended for repair
• Four percent of the houses had moisture problems so severe that urgent action was needed.
• Around 1,000 homes suffered moisture damage or risk of moisture damage in the rooms where people stay daily. Half of these baths were concerned.

This is how you see what kind of damage it is

In a 2008 study of 205 homes in Trondheim, referenced in the 2016 FHI report, one or more visible signs of moisture problems were found in 50 percent of homes.

The most common indicator was damp stains, swelling or capillary water absorption on the wood, which was detected in 18% of the houses, while in 15% of the houses floor leaks were found.

You can see at the bottom what kind of moisture damage it has and why it is, says Henning Becker:

– If the water is flowing into the basement, due to a large amount of groundwater, a nearby stream or similar, or if there is a crack in the wall, drainage can solve the problem. But dandruff, bubbles, and wallpaper bubbles on the bottom edge of the wall are usually due to moisture in the ground, and then drainage does not solve the problem.

A basement that is too low to the ground can also create a small negative pressure that then increases the capillary effect (the pull-up) on the wall. Perfectly good-looking walls can absorb more moisture when heated, according to Becker.

Also read: Horror figures: a nurse can afford three out of a hundred houses in Oslo

– Excited for the solution

Becker’s company, EPS Fuktsikring, has a patent for a technology that, with the help of electrodes attached to the wall, can convert water molecules and keep the wall dry. According to Becker, this solves in most cases the problem of the absorption of moisture from the soil.

The company’s technology is called “pulsed electrosmosis.” It consists of a permanent wall dryer: electrodes are inserted into the wall that are connected to a control panel for the electropulses that change the direction of the water molecules.

Becker mentions that, for example, Veritas seawater foams, concrete floating piers, use this technology.

In the house affected by humidity in Trondheim, Knut Høgmo will try this method now, following a tip from a friend:

– I’m very excited about how this is going, Høgmo tells Nettavisen.

– Drainage is necessary anyway

Protection against external moisture, such as drainage, is usually necessary anyway, to secure the building against the pressure of moisture from outside, says Trond Bøhlerengen, researcher at Sintef Community (formerly Sintef Byggforsk). They are especially the older houses that are built on land that requires drainage.

– When building a new work, you must both drain and also seek solutions in a foundation so that it does not absorb the water from the work.

He is not averse to electropulse technology on moisture that is drawn directly from the ground:

– Electropulse is a physical phenomenon. We have mixed experiences of the effect of this. We have seen several cases with no visible effect, but also some with, what we say, a homogeneous material, such as concrete. Natural stone and older masonry walls are not as homogeneous a material, so the technology is less likely to be effective.

Also read: New report smashes myths about home taxes

Do no harm

In older houses, the lower floors were rarely built to live originally, but rather for laundry and storage basements, the researcher emphasizes.

– Materials such as masonry, natural stone and concrete are not damaged by moisture. It’s natural for it to get a little damp, but it doesn’t matter for the bearing or the like if there’s a little rash and white powder on the wall, says Bøhlerengen.

Therefore, humidity problems are often more related to the use of the room than what the house can withstand, believes the Sintef researcher.

– Lower floors were generally not used for accommodation before, but you still want it and problems can arise.