Humidity inspection

[Robert Jones]

I am being asked to do a humidity inspection on a property with one bath and numerous residents. Has anyone ever tackled something like this? I don't personally carry any tools to measure humidity levels. Sounds more like a ventilation issue.

[ghentjr]

Check to see if the property is on gas appliances then check to make sure they are venting properly. Hi humidity can be due to improperly vented gas appliances, clogged chimney, etc.

[John Kogel]

Try to borrow a Humidistat. I wouldn't try to go without something to measure relative humidity in the house.

Poor circulation of air and not enough heat is what I would look for.

The worst case I've seen was a house full of kids and pets, piles of laundry everywhere, lots of long hallways with small cluttered bedrooms, and a woodstove in the dining room. They were not using the electric baseboard heat to save $. Humidity in the hallway was 74%.

[kurt]

I use a Fluke 971. They're extremely handy for moisture analysis. Temp, RH, Dew Point, etc. It's made me look really smart on a couple occasions.

Couple hundred bucks, but I use it as much as my Protimeter.

[David Meiland]

You can sometimes figure stuff out in one visit with a thermo-hygrometer like Kurt's (I have one also) and also your various moisture meters. It's also useful to have an IR thermometer so you can easily get surface temperatures as well, looking for places where the dewpoint is close or has been reached. You need to look at the MC of the outside air vs the inside air, possibly also compare to the crawl space or attic or whatever.

More often I find it's useful to leave dataloggers at the house. I use these http://www.ueitest.com/products/tempera ... idity/thl2 , they cost about $75 and I have 4 of them. Put one outside, on in the main living space, one in the bathroom, one in the attic... or wherever you want to look for issues. Leave them a week or two or three and then go back and get them, download the data, and see what's going on.

If it's condensation you're looking for, we're approaching the time of year when you won't find it, because it's not cold enough anymore.

If it's humid inside, they need to ventilate. Running the bath fan on a timer switch is a good start.

[kurt]

Yes. The bath fan timer switch has "solved" more moisture problems than I can remember.

[Marc]

I agree with David. It's like radon measurements. Moisture can vary a lot in a week.

Marc