Questions tagged [moisture]
The moisture tag has no usage guidance.
58
questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
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why is wood in crawlspace rotting?
Here in the hot and humid south, it is not uncommon for the crawlspace of a house to get so humid that the joists start to suffer from fungal rot. (More and more people are encapsulating their ...
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Should I be concerned about moisture around sprinkler head and vent grates in my bathroom?
I recently moved into a mid-rise condo with a bathroom situated in the interior of the building (no windows). The bathroom has relatively poor ventilation--there's no exhaust fan and it has just a ...
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My screened in porch with concrete slab for flooring smells like dirty feet at night
I purchased a home that at the time was an open porch with a concrete slab as a floor (painted).
Early in 2021, I had it screened in and wanted to paint the concrete a different color. I stripped/...
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Upper Floor Window Condensation Issues - HRV?
We live in a 2 level home with basement in central washington. The winters average 20-36 degrees Fahrenheit with humidity levels of 70-99%. Summers are fairly warm to hot with lower RH.
Our issue is ...
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Vapor barrier on heated entertainment shed
i am building an 8x10 entertainment shed with a loft for kids to hang out and have sleepovers in, i will be heating it. I have tyvek and t1-11 it is on 4x4 skids on top of the Concrete patio and has 3/...
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Installing a sump pump to reduce relative air humidity
I have a damp basement. There are really no big water issues because the house sits on sloped terrain, it's just damp and musty. I've been running a de-humidifier, but that doesn't seem to be taking ...
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2
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Basement moisture on foundation issues
After taking all sheet-rock down I noticed that all walls (cement block) siting under ground are moist. Some of them even ate through footers. After farther look at the house I found out that their is ...
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Mold odour immediately after rain! No sign inside or outside
I live on Prince Edward Island, on the east side of Canada. We renovated our old building completely last year, so everything is new and neat except the main structure. Now immediately after rain, we ...
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Drying concrete subfloor after water damage before installing laminate
We had a recent water leak that caused water to seep under our laminate floor. I pulled all the flooring up and removed the moisture barrier to reveal our concrete subfloor, which was moist.
It was a ...
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Basement humidity 80-90% with unsealed concrete foundation, how can wood moisture be OK?
In summer our home in west Massachusetts has a humidity level of 80--90% for months, which according to what I read can be a serious problem. However, my pinless moisture meter measures the wood beams ...
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Is this a water leak or condensation in the wall around my dryer vent?
I pulled my dryer out yesterday to clean the vent and tubing. When I moved the dryer I noticed what looked like a huge wet stain around the vent connection that leads to my attic. There appears to be ...
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Do I need to let my basement subfloor breathe?
I live in a mostly cold environment and I’m planning to finish my basement floor with standard interlocking foam tiles (with a slight rigid texture) for underlayment (soft/insulated) topped with roll-...
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Replacing moldy drywall
We recently purchased a lake house and found moldy framing and drywall. The removed drywall had a black backing on it, similar to felt paper. This part of the wall is sub-grade with wood (gc 2x6’s) ...
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Basement ceiling
I'm finishing my 50 year old basement and need advice regarding the 6'x4' ceiling area (which is actually a cement slab from the front porch). It drops down 2" lower than the rest of the ceiling. The ...
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Any benefit to air sealing fixture boxes in cathedral ceiling? If so, ideal method?
New house. We have a cathedral ceiling. Foam vent baffles from eave to ridge, r-38 fiberglass (unfaced), sheetrock.
Most of the lights in the ceiling are LED puck lights that have a built in gasket ...
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2
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Raising a sunken living room floor and concerned about moisture under new raised floor
I am raising a sunken living room floor but have some concerns about possible moisture problems under this raised floor. Here is what I have.
A 1979 typical ranch style. It is roughly a 16 x 20 ...
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placing a tile on an old plank floor
The subfloor in my home is 4" planks. The previous owner removed the hardwood, painted the flooring and left it that way (I have no idea why you would do that).
Regardless I want to put down tile. ...
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Reducing moisture from semi-finished basement concrete floor
I'm looking for advice for a good way to reduce moisture seepage through my basement concrete floor.
My research has turned up several promising approaches:
Surface-only treatments
Specialty paints
...
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Unfinished basement in Georgia townhome; would vapor barrier on interior trap moisture?
I have a town house that is a middle unit on a slab. The back wall is above grade, with exterior windows and door. The sidewalls abut adjacent units, so there is no wall in contact with soil for the ...
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Water/ moisture coming through patched concrete hole in basement floor
We had our walls braced last summer and the basement guys had to drill holes in the floor to push the walls back in to place. They patched up the holes with concrete and I've noticed a few times (...
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What are some ways of controlling moisture in the crawlspace?
I live in Los Angeles. I have a vented crawlspace. The vents are about 6" x 15" or so. I have about one every 6' or so along the walls of the house. The floor of the crawlspace is dirt.
I ...
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Mold on my One Month Old?
Moved in my newly built Wisconsin house in the first week of November. It's a raised ranch with unfinished full walkout basement. Insulation is fiberglass batting with 4mil poly over external wood ...
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How effective is elevated concrete for insulating moisture?
I am replacing a boiler in my basement and the contractor told me it will be better for the new boiler if he build an elevated concrete platform on which the new boiler will sit. He says this will ...
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Moisture on crawlspace dirt/clay floor
Our house has a damp/musty smell to it when you first enter. Once you open a window/door the smell usually dissipates. In May (Chicago-land) the humidity in the house is about 30% upstairs and 40% in ...
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4
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Combatting moisture in crawl space after venting window is sprayed with insulation?
I had a crawl space (top left) in my house which had a 12"x6" venting window. There is a room above the crawl space, so I decided to spray the walls of the space with closed-cell foam insulation which ...
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How soon should I see moisture levels improve after grading?
An inspector showed me several spots in my basement where I have excessive moisture levels in the drywall along the exterior walls in the basement, and along parts of the exposed concrete block ...
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Fix hardwood floor finish damaged by ironing carpet?
I did a boneheaded thing. I used medium heat iron over a damp rag to iron out some creases/curl from a couple of wool carpets, and damaged the PU finish on my floor.
How to fix this - any special ...
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White Spots on Wood in Attic
Went up to the attic today and saw these white spots on the wood for the ceiling. Just wondering what they are and if I should be concerned? And also how to get rid of it and prevent it from coming ...
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When framing stud walls against concrete basement foundation walls, can the frame make direct contact with the moisture barrier?
I am planning to frame a habitable space in my basement. The basement is poured concrete walls with an exterior DMX foundation wrap. There is also a vapor barrier installed under the slab.
For the ...
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Cabinets Installed Directly on Slab?
I just had some cabinets installed in my kitchen directly on the concrete slab foundation, and the installer didn't use any moisture barrier or anything comparable to ensure the wood products avoid ...
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Can I add plastic moisture barrier under my conventional floors without further damaging wood floor joists?
I have a conventional 2x8 floor that is 40 inches off the ground. The crawlspace has 6"x12" vents on all sides of the house, spaced every 12-15 feet. We live in a humid area.
Can I add ...
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Recommendation to avoid wood beams to get rotten and break
I'm trying to see what can I do to avoid my carport to fall apart.
When I bought the house two years ago I noticed that the wood beams that supported the cover for my carport were getting wet close to ...
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Question: Condensation - Insulation and a 130 year old double boarded house
I own a house that was built around 1890 to 1910 located in central Pennsylvania. It is a double boarded house meaning that it has no framing at all, it is a unique type of construction that was used ...
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Advice on moisture / efflorescence in concrete basement walls
I am finishing the basement in my 1926 house and planning to frame a proper wall against the concrete foundation - studs, insulation, moisture barrier, etc.
The previous owners had painted over the ...
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How to prevent vents from leaking?
It appears that in my house the cool air from the vents is causing moisture to condense around them and drip down the walls. Is there any way to prevent this? Also, is this in any way potentially ...
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Mildew around window retrofit inserts
Some of the windows in our house have mildew around the replacement window inserts (~18 years old). Mostly at the bottom. The original frames were aluminum, the inserts of course are PVC.
The ...
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2
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144
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Surfactant bleed through
I have a bathroom in our 1930's house that doesn't have an exhaust fan...and two teenage boys who take ridiculously long steamy showers. We had some mold issues on the ceiling, and some of the ceiling ...
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2
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1k
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Should I put a vapor barrier under metal framing in a basement?
I will be framing out my basement with steel so the bottom track will be on the concrete slab.
Is it required to put some sort of vapor barrier between the slab and the track? I couldn't find anything ...
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Outside Sauna Build Moisture control any suggestions?
I am currently building an Octagon sauna that will double as a mobile bug out shelter that will be mounted on a trailer.
I'm putting the octagon on edge if you can imagine so that when viewed from ...
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270
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Mystery of the wet internal door
I have a mystery and would like help solving it. I have an old original Victorian door in my house that gets a wet patch on it. It’s permanently wet / damp in the same area, although sometimes the ...
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Vapor barrier for crawl space
We have a home at Oak Island NC. Our home was built in the 70's. There were no mildew or mold problem until we had plastic put in our crawl space. After a few years we now have the mold problem so we ...
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Damp/Wet Corners with Mold in House
In the outer corners along the external walls of our house, and inside closets on external walls we are experiencing water and moisture gathering on the flooring and there is mold appearing on the ...
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333
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Basement room + concrete foundation + drywall + moisture question
Basement + concrete foundation + drywall / moisture question: just got drywall glued to a small portion of concrete foundation in an unfinished basement room:
Should I have contractor remove these ...
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Ways to dry out space in wall or ceiling
I am installing recessed lighting into our living room.
The ceiling of the room is topped with a flat roof.
At one point, there were a handful of leaks in this roof that have since been repaired. ...
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Flex shield moist protection against fungus?
Contractors are currently replacing a wooden floor which had been bowing, and repainting a wall. Both were damaged as a result of a leaking air conditioning pipe in the wall.
I’ve expressed a ...
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Lining an in-ground container
I plan to dig a hole and put things in said hole. My problem is, some of the things that will be buried can't or shouldn't be directly exposed to the ground, either for their benefit or the Earth's. ...
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3k
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Carpet directly on basement concrete?
We're planning to carpet the basement in our 100-year-old house, which presently has a painted concrete floor. The floor happens to be quite uneven and seems to have been designed to channel water ...
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How to control moisture in home?
I shifted to my new flat recently.
I found that it's quite moist inside, due to new construction.
Any one have any idea how I can control humidity inside?
Not using any machines, but like Silica ...
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69
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Drywall Type for Conditioned Basement
In my conditioned basement, should mold and moisture resistant drywall be used? I've read varying accounts, including use it everywhere, use it on the walls (but not ceiling), use it on the bottom row ...
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1k
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Should I spread lime in my crawlspace before laying moisture barrier?
The crawlspace is currently just earth. I'm going to be raking it, laying moisture barrier and then taping to seal.
Should I spread lime onto the earth before laying the barrier?