Your interior wall paints are well-protected within your home, but what about your exterior walls? As soon as the monsoon season hits, water runs down your roof and walls and drench your house from top to bottom. So, protecting your exterior walls from rain and other harsh weather conditions is something you cannot afford to overlook.

Read on to know how to prepare your exterior walls for the upcoming monsoon season.

Check Your Walls for Cracks and Faults

Before you waterproof your walls, it’s best to check for cracks and other faults on your walls. See if there are any cracks in your bricks or any condensation within the walls to a burst water pipe so that these factors do not add to the structural dampness of your walls. Once you fix these issues, you can move on to waterproofing your exterior walls.

Clean Your Gutters

Clogged gutters can flow over the edge, down your exterior walls, but that’s not the only problem. They also retain rainwater which is absorbed by the roof’s wood, consequently leading to a range of problems. It can cause rotten wood, mould and leaks. You can avoid all these issues and keep your home clean and healthy just by cleaning your gutters every six months.

Waterproofing Coating and Sealer

Before applying exterior wall paints, you need to apply some other waterproofing products on your walls. A concrete waterproofing coating is a cement-like product. It adheres to concrete and masonry once and for all. You can even apply it over your exterior wall paint. Other than that, you can use a silicate-based concrete sealer. It reacts with the ingredients in the concrete and masonry, forming a waterproofing coating. You should apply this sealer before you paint your walls. 

Choose the Right Exterior Paint

Selecting the right exterior paint is a crucial step to waterproofing your exterior walls. While choosing outdoor paint colours, you should focus on its ability to protect your walls from rough weather and rain more than how nice they will make your house appear from outside.

Pick high water-resistant and water repellent exterior paint that can secure your exterior walls from water and extreme climatic variations. That way, you can stay assured that water won’t enter the brick and mortar of your house and attack the foundational strength of your home. Superior quality exterior paints also provide protection from algae and other damaging factors.

Apply Plaster Waterproofing Additive

Plastering can help improve the aesthetics of your walls, make them solid and protect them from succumbing to moisture. Although most exterior plasters possess waterproofing properties, you can eradicate water infiltration issues and avoid reoccurrence simply by adding a waterproofing additive to the plaster.

Prepare Your Walls for Waterproofing

You need to use a premium-quality filler to repair patch holes and cracks on your exterior walls. Let the filler dry completely before grinding. Then you need to sand away rough, uneven areas, eliminate dust by cleaning the surface with water and allow the walls to dry fully. That way, you can ensure good adhesion between the substrate and the waterproofer.

Apply the Waterproofer

Use a brush or roller to apply the waterproofer. If you feel that a second coat is needed, let the first coat dry fully and then apply the second layer. 

Use Roof Protector

It’s not only your exterior walls that suffer the wrath of monsoons; your house roofing also goes through a lot. However, when you waterproof your roof, it prevents water from making its way into your house structure, resulting in ceiling dampness and leakages. It gradually sinks down and even ruins the interior paint on your inside walls.

Just like you use wall primer for your exterior walls, use roof protectors for the topmost surface of your home. Consider getting a roof protector that’s highly water repellent and resistant to algae growth.

Summary

Keep in mind the above points so that your house stays happy and healthy during the monsoon season and beyond that.