Salt damp is the damage in buildings caused by the rising moisture and salts absorbed through porous materials including bricks, stonework and mortar and external renders.
Cause of Salt Damp
The main cause of salt damp develops because the damp-proof-course in the wall is ineffective and allows moisture from the ground to soak upwards into the porous masonry wall materials by capillary action.
Salt damp or rising damp is particularly prevalent in a lot of areas across metropolitan Adelaide and also appears in Country South Australia.
Statewide Salt Damp have conducted salt damp repairs all over Adelaide and South Australia, this experience means we know which type of solution is going to be most effective in your suburb, country town or geographic area.
Salt damp damage occurs in two ways:
The presence of damp causes some materials to depreciate. Signs of this are plaster will soften, paint peels, steel reinforcing and nails will rust and timber will rot. There will be unhealthy mould and a general slow decomposition and smells. Damp conditions also encourage insect pests such as termites. Statewide Salt Damp Services The presence of salts in the damp causes a microscopic attack on the masonry materials themselves. The salts crystallise as the moisture evaporates, usually just beneath the surface, up to the “tide-mark” of the damp. The enormous pressure created by individual salt crystals growing within the pores will physically break down the matrix of masonry surrounding each salt crystal. Eventually, the masonry breaks down in layers and spalls off. Some of the salts cause a chemical reaction that also destroys the internal structure of the masonry. If the walls have been sealed, the damp will climb higher and higher up the wall, up to the level that it can evaporate.g back up. Keep a few handy. You’ll come up with a surprising number of ways to use them as weights.
