Eliminate Condensation on Walls and Windows

Learn how to eliminate condensation on the walls or windows of your home. Find out how getting a home energy audit and reducing humidity inside the home can help eliminate condensation on your walls and windows.

[mai_avatar size="40" margin_right="-4px"][post_author_posts_link before=" by "][post_date before=" — "][mai_icon icon="comment-alt-lines" style="light" display="inline-block" size="1em" margin_left="12px" margin_right="-8px" margin_bottom="-4px"][post_comments][post_sponsor][shared_counts]

LESLIE: Craig in Iowa, you’ve got The Money Pit. What can we do for you today?

CRAIG: Yeah, I’ve got a moisture problem in my house and it’s actually on the outside wall.

TOM: OK.

CRAIG: So in the winter, when it gets very cold here, actually it – condensation on the walls themselves.

TOM: Hmm.

CRAIG: Like we get some on the windows but also on the walls.

TOM: OK.

CRAIG: And the house feels dry; like it doesn’t seem like we have excessive moisture in here.

TOM: OK. And we’re sure that we’re not having any sort of a leak here?

CRAIG: No, because it’s in various places in the house …

TOM: OK.

CRAIG: … and it’s only towards the bottom of the walls. (inaudible at 0:09:11.0)

TOM: Alright. Well, obviously, it’s still very damp inside the house. You’re not feeling it yourself but it’s evidencing itself on the wall. A couple of things. First of all, there’s an insulation issue because the walls are probably colder than they need to be, so I don’t think you have continuous insulation. You may want to think about having a home energy audit done where the walls could be scanned with an infrared scanner and actually point out the cold spots in the wall.

The second thing that you could do is take some steps to reduce the amount of humidity inside the house. You know, Aprilaire makes a product called a whole-home dehumidifier that can be adjusted to run 24-7 and maintain just the right amount of humidity – whether it’s, you know, the summer or the winter – in every room of your house; not just, say for example, a basement.

Other things that you can do would be to improve the grading and the drainage at the foundation perimeter.

LESLIE: Yeah, control that moisture that’s coming in from the outside so that it doesn’t become a problem inside.

TOM: Yeah, so we have less water against the foundation.