Replies

1. 
   calvin | Jun 27, 2023 11:27pm | #1

   Waterfront where?
   A.C. On, temp outside?
   Drywall finished when? Concrete floor?
   Basement or crawl?
   Humidity levels inside and out?
   Time from finish to you inhabiting?
   As much more description you can list.
   What does the builder think? How much history of them building in this area?

   No mind readers dwell here.

2. 
   Coastalhomeowner_68 | Jun 28, 2023 07:33am | #2

   Thank you for your questions.
   We built a bay home near the gulf coast in Texas. Been in the home for 3 months. Floors are tile in a concrete slab on a grading.
   Temps outside are in the 90’s. The house faces the south, so the exterior wall in the affected area gets frequent moist southern breeze.
   We were keeping the A/C on 73 or 74, but our builder had us turn it down to 70 to reduce humidity in the home.
   Builder thinks the A/C isn’t balanced properly. I’m thinking the moist warm air blowing into the south wall, meeting the cold interior surfaces around the switches and outlets is causing condensation. But that doesn’t explain the residue build up over the baseboards. The baseboards are getting moist and are separating from the wall in the affected area as well.
   I asked our builder about sealing the horizontals between the hardie plank boards on the exterior of the home. He said no because the house needs to breathe to avoid condensation in the walls…

1. 
   [email protected] | Jun 28, 2023 02:50pm | #3

   Definitely do not chalk your siding. It will expand and contract and just crack. If any water does get behind it, there is no way for it to drain. It sounds like you should have done a rain screen.

2. 
   calvin | Jun 28, 2023 03:48pm | #4

   I am in Ohio, so take this as a theory up here.
   Water (humidity) condenses on a cold beer can here. Same goes for a bottle of cold beer. Except when the wind blows from Nova Scotia, it gets pretty darn humid.

   So extrapolating cold beer, high humidity and the container the beer is in getting wet on the outside it’s semi safe to assume that if your house has water (high moisture content) inside the wall then lowering the humidity inside isn’t going to help.

   I think.

   Now in old, drafty homes up here with high humidity inside in the winter and smokers or just dirty nasty people you will often see Sheetrock nails “appear” on the walls, mostly up high near the ceiling (ghosting).
   The dirty air condenses on the wall at the cold nail locations. Occasionally a whole band of collected (dirt) will appear where wall meetups ceiling. All the above on exterior walls, so the exterior cold is transferred quickly and directly.causing the condensation on the inside of the exterior walls.

   If most of the problem is low in your house on the south side, then it seems to me that your relatively new curing and drying out concrete might be the source of the moisture.

   It should be asked as well if your builder is well experienced in your area. Locale and proven building methods there can certainly be important. A while ago when building took a dive here up north a bunch of framers zoomed down south and were introduced to the problems of faux stucco. Things that worked here fell apart in a few years there.

   Sorry for the length and probably worthless response. Just getting inside and watching the Canadian wildfire smoke turn a should be sunny day, taupe.

   Best of luck!

3. 
   calvin | Jul 03, 2023 09:38am | #5

   Hope you return with some further updates. Yours was a serious question and could prove valuable to others.

   Thanks.