September 1st, 2014 10:31 PM by Dan Howard
There is a plain English explanation of how moisture can be a year around problem in just about any building including your home. We tend to think of moisture in the home as a spring problem. That's not how that works.
Think about the windshield in your car. In winter your window fogs up on the inside. We turn on the defrosters and bingo, bango the window clears up as we warm the windshield.
Let's now think about summer. We turn on the air conditioner in the car and the outside of the windshield fogs up as the window gets cold. We can't heat all of the outside air, so we turn on the windshield wiper and wipe away the condensate on the outside of the cold windshield.
What that teaches us is that when there is elevated moisture in air and a temperature difference between objects or materials, there can be condensation and moisture. It can be on the outside of the walls, or the inside of house walls, inside air conditioner ductwork, in attics, crawl spaces or any other cold area near a warmer area. Water will condense on available colder surfaces just like condensate collects on your glass of ice water on the Fourth of July.
Your home always has moisture created when you breathe, shower, cook, or do anything else that involves water vapor. In summer, your house may be room temperature, but materials around air conditioner ductwork can become wet. In winter, you could have a warm interior of the house, but exterior walls will be cold and become wet inside.
Your Home Improvements and Dampness Can Make You Sick
Installing new windows, doors, insulation, weather stripping and other improvements increases the dampness in the home by trapping more moisture in the home. Improperly sized or high efficiency heating systems can also have the negative effect of adding significant dampness in the home. New roofs or changes in venting can create moisture problems where they never existed.