I just discovered water on the floor of a second story room which is unfinished at this time. The water had accumulated along one wall, in the “bonus” room which has a cathedral ceiling with a salt box style roof. The salt box roof line is lower than the adjacent roof line (which is 8/12 pitch). (in Maine by the way)
In the attic, the wall on the eave end near the salt box roof line was soaking wet, almost the entire wall. There was also frost in certain areas on the wall. Since the whole wall was wet my guess is that I have an interior moisture problem that is making its way into the attic, condensing on the wall (which also happens to be the coldest wall on the north side), forming frost, and then when we have a warmer day, it starts to trickle down the walls. This is my theory anyway (rather than a roof leak)
I should mention that over the last couple weeks we have run humidifiers frequently, perhaps more than normal. I have looked into other sources of moisture and have not found anything unusual.
What are my options?, other than the obvious, which is to tone down the humidifier.
Pics attached. Thanks for any advice.
Replies
Steve,
Welcome to Breaktime!!
If you click on your name above (where it says "To: Steve"), you will open your profile.
We would appreciate it if you could fill some of that in.
Thanks!
As to your problem...
Wow, those are some dramatic pics! It does appear that the entire end wall is wet, but the rest of the attic is dry??
It would be helpful if you could tell us about how the house is detailed...is there a crawlspace? a basement? How is it insulated?
How are the living area walls insulated?
You've just finished building?
How tight is the house? When you open the door on a cold still day, is air blowing in?
Someone who used to post on this site used to say that "a dry house is a leaky house". If you are running humidifiers, it is because too much of your air is moving freely into the attic, allowing dry outside air into the house.
Between the crawlspace/basement, dishwashing, bathing, breathing, etc., there should be enough moisture in the air. Since there isn't...
You probably have to address the origin of the moisture and the manner in which it is getting to the attic.
First I would suggest that you seal the attic floor. Go into the attic and go over the entire floor foaming shut every little crack, crease, and hole you can find.
Then see how dry or humid the living area is.
Rich Beckman
Another day, another tool.
Rich: I appreciate the welcome, thanks! I updated a few things in the profile. I admit to being a bit of a "lurker" at this site for some time. I am not a builder, so I try to stay in the background and learn what I can from folks like yourself.
The house is 2x6 framed, pretty standard in this area, R-19 in the walls R-40 in the attic, vapor barrier in the walls, not ceilings. The house has had the first floor complete for 2.5 years now, and I continue to pick away at the rest. I have not done any blower door testing, so I wouldn't be able to put an exact number on tightness (air changes/hr). I would say it is average for this type of construction.
I did go around with some spray foam and seal all the openings to the attic prior to insulating. I'll have a better chance to look around this weekend.
Billy: I killed the humidifier, thats the first step. Hopefully that alone clears things up.
The drywall you see from the attic is where the peak of the cathedral ceiling (in the salt box portion) meets the attic under the adjacent roof. I didn't look at it too closely after I peeled the insulation back, but it does seem like there should be some sort of nailer in that area. I'll check it out.
David: the house was ~200K, but its all relative.
Thanks again for your advice!
"I updated a few things in the profile"
Did you click on submit? Your profile is still empty when I click on it.
"I have not done any blower door testing, so I wouldn't be able to put an exact number on tightness (air changes/hr). I would say it is average for this type of construction."
How high up in the house do you have to go to have the air blow out when you open a window?
The tighter the house (especially the attic floor) the lower the neutral pressure plane is. So a quick and dirty method of testing the tightness is to open windows (ONE at a time) and see how high in the house you have to go before the air blows OUT of the window instead of in (this works best on cold still days).
If the air is blowing in at the highest window in the house, you probably still have some sealing to do. I would look very closely at the base of the wet attic wall...since that is what is wet there is a chance that the leak is right there.
Definitely cut the humidifier. It is really confusing the issues.
Rich Beckman
Another day, another tool.
Steve,
You are right to tone down the humidifier. I stopped using one in my home after I noticed excessive moisture in the attic, even after sealing everything I could get access to. Turning off the humidifier solved the problem.
In one of your photos I noticed that you can see the top of the drywall from your attic. Hoe did that happen? Did they skip the nailer at the ceiling or add the nailer after the wall sheetrock was in place, which means they would have sheetrocked the ceiling last?? Doesn't make sense to me, but I don't know all the drywall shortcuts.
Billy
Edited 1/31/2005 2:25 pm ET by Billy
How much would a house like that cost?
Can't tell from here, but what are the probabilities you've got ice-damming? That's the most usual cause of winter roof leakage around here. I think your climate is similar to ours if not quite so extreme.
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
Kill the source of the moisture. Done.
Is the attic or bonus room space vented? Soffit-to-ridge? Or what kind? I can't really tell from the scale fo the pic. I do see a small blip on the secondary saltbox roof. Near the ridge and near the rake. What is that.
And to confirm looking at the pic of the house...it's the room under the secondary saltbox roof that's having these problems?
Did you say that there isn't a vapor barrier at the ceiling of this room? The vertical OSB wall end- is that part of the space that has the moisture problem? It looks like it's totally uninsulated.
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."