A cleared cavity needs little looking after, but the months after extraction are when a house either dries out properly or gets wet again for a different reason. This is what we tell our own customers on the completion certificate, written out here so you can find it later.
01
Inside, while the wall dries
- Keep air moving. Windows open on dry days, trickle vents open, extractor fans used every time the kitchen or bathroom makes steam.
- Keep background heat on in the affected rooms through the cold months rather than heating them hard and letting them go cold.
- Pull furniture a hand’s width off outside walls for the drying season and check behind it now and then.
- Wipe any surface mould that appears with a proprietary cleaner; it is a symptom of a drying wall, not a sign the work failed.
- Do not seal, paint with vinyl or wallpaper the wall until it reads dry. A plain non-vinyl emulsion after a few weeks is fine if the stain bothers you.
- Expect staining and salts to get worse before they get better. That is the water leaving.
02
Outside, keeping water off the wall
- Clear the gutters each autumn and after big storms, and check the downpipes run into the drain rather than down the wall.
- Look at the pointing on the weather side once a year. Open joints let rain into the cavity; a clear cavity copes, but a wall that is being wetted cannot dry.
- Keep airbricks clear of soil, leaves, bins and anything leant against the wall. If a path or patio is being raised, keep it below the airbricks and the damp-proof course.
- Keep an eye on sills and the render or pointing beneath them; that is where water gets into the wall around windows.
- If anyone offers to re-insulate, make them survey the exposure of each elevation in writing first, and do not let them fill a wall that is still wet.
03
When to email us
- A damp patch that is still reading wet, or getting bigger, after a full dry season.
- Any brick or joint we reinstated that looks loose or open.
- Loose bead or fibre appearing anywhere, which can mean material we did not know about behind a boundary.
- Before you re-insulate or sell, if you would like a borescope check and readings for the record.
Email [email protected] or request a service call. We reply within one working day to arrange a free survey and quote.
If your house was cleared by someone else and you are not sure it was done properly, the same advice applies, and the same survey is free. Book a free survey.
