LESLIE: John in Alaska is working on a fixer-upper. What can we help you with?
JOHN: OK, what I’ve got going is I’ve got a home built in 1977; split level; built over a two-car garage. I’ve been going through – it’s a fixer-upper, so I’ve been going through the whole house there redoing everything. In the last six to eight years replaced all the windows and finally got around to, about two years ago now, replacing – I basically took the garage doors off and closed it in to make a living area underneath. So I put two windows in where the garage door was and did a real good job on insulating and all that sort of stuff.
So now what I’ve got going here is I’ve got a house that I basically made too airtight and I’ve got moisture problems; condensation on the windows. I’ve got forced-air heat and I’m just – you know, I’ve been using a humidifier and I’m just having trouble trying to fix this problem to the point …
TOM: You mean a dehumidifier or a humidifier?
JOHN: A dehumidifier (inaudible at 0:03:32.5). (chuckles)
TOM: Alright. Just wanted to make sure you didn’t have a moisture machine in there throwing lots of water against those windows. (Leslie chuckles)
Well listen, John, you’ve diagnosed this correctly. When your home was drafty you had plenty of ventilation because you were exchanging inside air with outside air on a regular basis. Now that you’ve tightened it up, you are at a point where you have to take some mechanical steps to reduce the amount of humidity inside the house. What I would recommend is something called a whole-house dehumidifier. This is not a portable dehumidifier; it’s a whole-home dehumidifier. It is installed into the HVAC system. It runs 24/7 and it reduces the moisture throughout the entire house. It has a drain system on it so it’s totally maintenance free. You just kind of set it and forget it; just like Ronco. (Leslie chuckles)
JOHN: Yeah, that’s what I’m looking for; something like that. Who’s a maker of that?
TOM: Aprilaire is the best manufacturer for that equipment in the country. Their website is Aprilaire.com and you’re looking for the whole-home dehumidifier. It takes out …
LESLIE: Ninety pints.
TOM: Yeah, 90 pints of water a day. So that will make that problem go away.
JOHN: Hey, that’s what I’m looking for. Excellent. Hey, thank you so much.
TOM: Alright, John. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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