I’ve heard about having to ‘dry out’ a new home. What’s involved and why?
During construction, every new home absorbs water. Some 5000 litres on average! You won’t notice it’s there and it certainly isn’t harmful to anyone living in the house. But for the first six months or so this moisture has to be given a chance to evaporate at a slow and steady rate to keep shrinkage and cracking in the plaster and brickwork to a minimum. You can do this by keeping your home at a reasonably even temperature so the underlying building structure warms up and dries out gradually. Use your central heating sparingly at first and set the thermostat no higher than 20 degrees. At the same time, leave as many windows as possible open while you’re in the house, ensure the ‘trickle vents’ above each window are open all the time and keep cupboard doors and interior doors open to encourage air circulation and evaporation. Unfortunately, failure to acclimatise your home in this way may lead to damage to fixtures and fittings for which Elan Homes can’t be held responsible. Other effec
