Painting, decorating and home improvement tips blog
How plants can damage your house
Posted by Adrian
July 17th, 2011
Climbers and Ivy can damage your house
Climbers and ivy growing up a wall or your house can look very idyllic but you could be heading for costly repair bills if left to grow.
This post comes after decorating an exterior of a property recently. The walls were rendered and needed re-painting with masonry paint. One wall had in the past had ivy growing up the wall but had been removed.
The main issues was that when the ivy was pulled off the wall it took some of the old masonry paint with it, and left lots of the ‘suckers’ from the ivy. The wall looked ‘hairy’ and after my best efforts scrapping and pulling all the bits off, I couldn’t remove all of the old ivy from the wall, luckily it was in an area which could not be seen, which is, I guess why the ivy got a hold in the first place. After painting, the wall looked OK although you could see where the ivy had been.
If you have ivy or any climbers climbing up your walls be aware they could potentially damage your house, many climbers will pull the mortar out of the brickwork exposing gaps between the bricks where water can get in, also any evergreen climber that has leaves on all year round can trap water against the wall and create damp indoors.
Climbers can also, if allowed to, will get behind fascia board and under soffits and even lift roof tiles.
So it maybe a good idea, to consider how these plants can affect your house before planting climbers against your house walls.
Tags: Exterior Decorating, Fascia, House, Masonry, Render, Soffit
Posted in Decorating Tips | 5 Comments »
Thank you for posting this, good information and tips I will be sure to visit again.
Ivy can and WILL break into the smallest of cracks in brickwork particularly and pull out all the cement…like MG say – I would go for something kinder if I were you! If you fancy a nice Virginia creeper ….OK they can be fairly vigorous too – but at least you have a chance of keeping an eye on it and stopping the damage before it starts….it is nice and colourful too in the autumn particularly.
In all cases the walls decoration and the colors are important for the beauty of your home. You can damage your home with wrong color and make it real paradise with the correct one.
Yes! I cringe every time I see a property with Ivy sprawled all over it. Especially when someone asks me to paint over it.
Cheers
This is very informative article that tell us how our houses are damaged by climbers & ivy.