When there is high humidity in your home, your living quality will decrease. That’s why to take care of your family’s health, you need to diagnose this condition early. In this regard, an expert could visit your house and check that you have proper humidity levels. But you can also identify the problem by yourself, looking out for the effects of high humidity in your house.
High humidity is a problem that most households have, especially if there is not good ventilation. The main cause of this issue is that the moisture inside your home concentrates. In other words, it can’t get out. This situation, if not controlled, can produce serious hazards in your home.
Before we discuss the effects of high humidity on the body and the home, you need to understand what it is. You will see that once you get to know the root of the issue, it will be easier to fix it.
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What is High Humidity?
We bet that at least once in your life you have heard about humidity, but you don’t exactly know what it is. When we are talking about humidity, we refer to a concentration of water vapour in the air of your home. If your house has high humidity, this means there is a large amount of vapour inside, creating a humid environment.
Activities that could contribute to high humidity levels in your home, including drying laundry, taking a hot bath or boiling water. To avoid that situation, you can crack a window open and let the airflow through your home. Keep in mind that other factors could be causing high humidity in your house.
Remember that humidity is not always bad. It will only affect you when it is either too low or too high. That’s why you need to find what is the ideal humidity level in your home. If you want to learn how to do this, go to Paradise Developments.
6 Symptoms of High Humidity in Home
There are several effects of high humidity that you could easily identify around your house. For instance, once mould starts growing, it could damage your belongings and furniture. Further, this problem could also impact the health of your family. That’s why below, we will describe some of the clues that will help you identify the issue and tackle it before it gets worse.
Mould and Mildew
This is the most common consequence when you don’t control high humidity inside your home. These elements, which are microscopic fungi, will start growing on the surfaces of your house. However, both of them have different characteristics. While Mildew usually grows in the form of a grey path in places such as the shower. Mould can appear on your walls with a particular green colour and penetrate deeper into the foundations.
There are also effects of high humidity in the body, especially when it comes to mould. This fungus could trigger some health problems in your children such, as asthma and allergies.
Peeling Wallpaper
Since as we explained before, your walls would be the main surface to show symptoms of high humidity in a home. For that reason, you need to look out for the warning signs. If water vapour condensates in your house, there is a high probability that it can damage your walls. For instance, you will start noticing how the wallpaper curls in the edge of the room. This issue could also destroy your paintwork.
Many people believe that to eliminate the problem they can just paint another layer, or replace a piece of the wallpaper. However, that is not how it works. You need to carefully inspect your whole room and determine how big the damage is.
Damaged Furniture
If there is one thing that can completely destroy wood furniture is water. That’s why we need to be careful when cleaning up. But, in this regard, high humidity levels can produce the same effects. You will notice that when there is a humid environment inside your house, stains will appear on your furniture.
There is a higher probability that this will happen to the furniture located near the outside walls. To avoid irreparable damage, make sure you do a regular check of the hardwood floor, frames and furniture in your property.
Structure of your Home
The concentration of vapour water inside your home is more dangerous when you can’t see the consequences. For instance, if there is high humidity accumulating in your basement, crawl spaces and foundation. To avoid this, we recommend doing an annual check of your home. Otherwise, the damage could lead to expensive repairs.
It is important to pay special attention to these parts of your home during winter. Plus, you can ensure that these enclosed spaces have at least one source of ventilation.
Dermatitis and Asthma
One of the effects of high humidity on the body is the presence of dermatitis. This happens because, in this environment, sweat will remain attached to your skin producing a rash. However, what is even worse is that high humidity could increase the symptoms of people who have respiratory problems.
In case your children suffer from asthma, you must have the best air quality inside your home. That way, they will breathe easier, and you won’t have to worry about mould particles floating around.
Muscle Cramps
We understand that it is difficult to believe that you can get muscle cramps when you don’t engage in physical activity. But, believe it or not, it can happen when there is high humidity in the environment. This happens because of how your body works. As you might know, the biological cooling mechanism is sweat, since when it evaporates, you will start to cool off. However, when there is too much humidity, your body will keep sweating, but the substance won’t evaporate.
Since you will be losing water and minerals through this process, there are some symptoms of high humidity in a home that you can experience. For instance, you can get muscle cramps, headaches, fatigue and dizziness.