I’m remodeling my remodel, ? Yeh! well anyway I discovered some of the wood is really wet!!
I need a source for the moisture..
Let me tell you how the house is built so you can see how impossible this is.
I am using SIP’s over a timberframe.. Just to review a SIP is a structural panel made with OSB, foam and OSB.. in this case it’s 11 inches thick.. 1/2 inch OSB, 10 inches of solid foam, and 1/2 inch OSB..
I built according to instructions which call for sheetrock on top of the timbers. then 5 mil poly and then the SIP.. On top of that is ICE and Water shield a glued down covering. On top of that was cedar breather and then Cedar hand split shakes installed with 30 # felt between courses as called for topped with 12 inches of seamless copper.
This is on a 17/12 pitchroof..
Now the really wierd part I mean really wierd!
The top layer of OSB is bone dry.. dryer than a popcorn fart. dusty in fact.. it’s the bottom level that has all the moisture.
If the roof is leaking then somehow water gets past the top layer of OSB without leaving a mark or moving the dust thru a solid 10 inch block of foam (like a coffee cup foam) and settles on the lower layer of OSB..
It’s been three years since the roof was sealed off and I did the work myself.. The Ice and water shield is overlapped six inches and it over laps at the peak by 1/2 it’s width Water would have to sneak under the handsplits, slide past the 30 pound felt, go through Ice and water shield, past the top layer of OSB thru a ten inch solid block of foam to get there. all on a 17/12 pitch roof with solid copper peak!
My only thoughts are that somehow interior moisture is soaked up by the bottom layer of OSB..
But how?
there isn’t a water pipe within 30 feet of the roof (the plumbing vents on another section of roof.. the rest of the house is bone dry.. Less than 5% moisture Other roof panels in other parts of the house (where I don’t have a vapor barrier yet) are bone dry.. top, bottom, sides, etc..
any thoughts? I’m grasping at straws.
Replies
sounds like it may be the same problem they had in Alaska..
did you gun foam your joints in the sips ?
here's a link
http://www.sips.org/DesktopModules/Articles/ArticlesView.aspx?tabID=0&ItemID=45&mid=11127
to me it sounds like you have an interior moisture source that you've never found.. and this is just a recurrence of the same problem you had with the cellulose in the original attic
Mike,
Thanxs, an interior moisture problem?
As I've said, it's drier than a popcorn fart in the house. Why would one section of the ceiling be bone dry when three inches over the bottom layer of OSB is soaking wet?
The only differance between the two areas is one has a poly barrier with sheetrock over it while the other section doesn't..
NO I didn't gun foam the joints, I used the adhesive the manufacturer recommended and properly squeezed the joints to gether to get a good seal.. The joints I've cut apart are well bonded and show no gaps.
Edited 4/2/2006 9:53 am ET by frenchy
Frenchy, just to clarify. The visqueen is on the backside of the drywall, under the osb sip panel. How did you lay the visqueen? Did you start at the bottom and lap going up or the top going down? This (top down) might put a possible break in the seal, allowing warmer air to escape up into the space between the visqueen and the osb.
This idea is a reach at best to help you come up with an answer.
edit: Just tried to read Mikes link and for some reason, all the written lines at the link are jumbled on top of themselves and I can't read it very clearly. Sure is a good idea from what I gather, as the potential source for the moisture.
A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
Edited 4/1/2006 3:20 pm ET by calvin
calvin.. you can also google on
sips alaska roofing
and lot's of sites will pop up
if i recall.. the problem was every joint allowed moist inner air to get to the outside layer, which became a condensing surface, then it "rained" back into the bottom of the joint and soaked the bottom layer of osb
this would also correspond with frnchy's discussion of cellulose causing moisture problems..
he has probably got an interior moisture source ( basement / foundation / crawlspace )
that continuosly pumps moist air into the attic / cathedral ceiling area
the vizqueen moisture barrier is being by-passed
Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Edited 4/1/2006 3:28 pm ET by MikeSmith
Thanks.A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
frenchy... here's a saga of a homeowner with a sips roof where the edges were not sealed
check out the guy's triple fracture from trying to shovel the ice dams
http://forestmandala.com/index.htmlMike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
"Less than 5% moisture"
That is not the moisture level in the house. You need a humdity guage to measure that.
That is the moisture level in the WOOD.
"Other roof panels in other parts of the house (where I don't have a vapor barrier yet) are bone dry.. top, bottom, sides, etc.."
And that "vapor barrier" is also a water barrier. So you might have the same conditions and it generating a few drops of water, but it can dry out again.
But with the poly it is being trapped.
No Bill,
That is the moisture in the house.. I have one of those sets of gauges with a humidistat. Honestly the gauge is bottomed out.. if I breath on it it rises so I'm sure it's working. and it shows 95% humidity during the summer when the windows are open..
My wife and I both suffer from dryskin caused by the dryness of the house
I do agree that it could be a moisture problem, with the wood getting damp somehow and the vapor barrier trapping the moisture in.
That has to be way off.Get a dgital one. Or better, if you run in HVAC people see if you can get one to stop by with there test equipment.
Bill,
Why does it have to be way off?
I mean it's drier than a popcorn fart here and wood quickly dries to less than 5% moisture content. In addition both my wife and I have terribly dry skin caused by the dryness..
The humidity in my breath will quickly cause it to rise and in the summer with the windows open it reads what the weather guy says it is (plus a little since we live on a lake (actually in the middle of a big lake)....
frenchy.. did you go to any of those sites i linked ?
one of them showed an investigation with a thermograph that pretty much told the whole story
there are energy companies in your area that could do that for youMike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore