Condensation in detached garage

[bharatchavda]

Hello,
I have built detached garage last summer. The garage is finished and un heated. It is cold outside and I found condensation on garage door , windows and on metal parts such as screws and metal corner beads. The garage is tapped also. Please let me know what the root cause is and what is the solution to resolve this issue this year. I cannot installed garage heater this year as there no 240 V power or natural gas in garage. Snow is piled around garage and in backyard makes difficult to dig trench to install power line or gas line. Please help me. I am in cold weather in Edmonton - Alberta

Thanks

 

[c4cruiser]

Are there any vents?

 

[rmc115]

It will always do that with a sunny day and cold inside just like sweat on a glass of iced tea. a propane salamander would help temporary, Heat is the only permanent asnwer. Mike

 

[bharatchavda]

Yes, vents on roof but ceiling is finished with drywall

 

[kbs2244]

You need air circulation.
If you have no power then make the sun work for you.
Open your ceiling to the space above.
The sun will heat that space and the warm air will go out the vents, drawing the moisture with it.

 

[readhead]

There has to be a source of moisture to have condensation. I am guessing that it is only in the winter. Do you park inside? You may be bringing in snow. Is there a concrete floor? If there is no vapor barrier you could be getting water comming through the slab. Is the drywall recent? Water is comming out of the mud. A open flame heater will just put more water in the air from combustion. You said there is snow outside. Is the siding sealed around the bottom? Either the inside has to be the same temp as the outside or you have to insulate and or heat to the point that you don't have any cold surfaces for water to condense on .

 

[bharatchavda]

Yes. I park my vehicles in garage. The tires are always snowy. Garage is insulated.The floor is concrete and there is no heat at this moment. I didn't realized for heat requirement during finishing. I will run gas line for heater coming spring. But it is difficult to extend gas line for heating. Garage electric heaters needs 240V power and at this moment I don't have it. I am looking for the solution for this winter.

 

[juiced10]

Do you happen to leave car running in the garage to warm it up? That puts lots of humidity in the air.

 

[DARK AGE 53]

Best I can suggest is get a good quality floor fan, might sound crazy but I run one in one of my garages 24/7/365. One like this has been running for over 5 years, http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WT6ZFO/?tag=atomicindus08-20 .

 

[motorcycle79]

Get a dehumidifier fans help too but u need to get as much snow off car outside. Push melted snow and snow chunks outside or down drain. When floor is mostly dry crack your garage door and watch how fast it will dry. The outside will almost always be dryer than in the garage. If u want some temp gas heat u could use a 100# propane tank and use a unit heater

 

[DARK AGE 53]

Get a dehumidifier

A dehumidifier will freeze up when it's cold.

 

[readhead]

Sounds like a unit heater as suggested above might be your best bet. Use a thermostat to help control gas use. As mentioned try to remove as much water as possible before you close up for the night.

 

[911mike]

Your kind of stuck. Get a couple of fans and run them 24/7. I will help. I have big *** ceiling fans in my shop and they really help. Keeping the moisture outside is your main goal. Squeegee out any water you can everyday. BTW the ceiling fans work great in the summer too. It's a must have.

 

[kingodacheez]

You need air circulation.
If you have no power then make the sun work for you.
Open your ceiling to the space above.
The sun will heat that space and the warm air will go out the vents, drawing the moisture with it.

Yes; I have to agree with this one.
If there is no ventilation, you are never going to be rid of the moisture because there is nowhere for it to go. It's a bit like trapping moist air in a jar.
Even if you cannot get heat into the garage this winter, I would recommend installing at least two ceiling vents into the attic space.
The sun and even the vehicle's residual heat will help to carry away that moisture.
Tracking in all of that snow will continue to be an issue too. That needs to be knocked off outside as much as possible, and squeegeed out once it has melted.

 

[e-tek]

Seems I've answered on several similar threads lately - with winter comes condensation! It was said above - you need ventilation to the outside, even more than you need heat - just blowing it around won't work all that well.
Install a fan to pull dry air in and push moist air out. You can put one in a window, wall, roof (but not into attic), wherever. It doesn't need to be very powerful either - certainly not like a shop exhaust fan. I used to have a 16" box fan hanging in front of an open window which worked for years, but now I installed a "proper" 10" fan in the window.

It has flaps that close when not in use. I put mine on a humidistat (hard to find them!), but a timer, or even manual will work. A great, clean, idea is to cut a 4-6" hole somewhere to install a duct fan, again on a humidistat or timer.

As far as melting snow - I use garage mats from our Coop. The best ones have a rope sewn into the edge (under the van below), which don't break down like mats with plastic edges (under the Mini). We have 2 cars constantly melting and a pool of water under each car all winter - with NO moisture issues.

 

[e-tek]

You need air circulation.
If you have no power then make the sun work for you.
Open your ceiling to the space above.
The sun will heat that space and the warm air will go out the vents, drawing the moisture with it.

I wouldn't do that. You don't want to introduce any moisture into the attic.

 

[Big-Foot]

X2 on getting the air moving in there... I use cheap little 8-10" fans and keep one of them turned on 7-24-365 and no issues.. A fan typically lasts a little more than a year on medium speed and costs $10... China has to be good for something... LOL

The other thing you need to think about doing is to kick off the icebergs from behind your wheels before bring the vehicles into the garage. Makes for less moisture in the garage. Periodically using a floor broom to sweep the excess **** out the door would help too.

 

[bharatchavda]

Do you mean to install exhaust fan on wall or in ceiling? I can cut ceiling and put exhaust fan and air will flow in attic space. Will this reduce the moisture and condensation? Putting exhaust fan at this time on wall is difficult due to snow around the garage periphery.

 

[readhead]

Do not exhaust into attic. You will start growing mold.

 

[e-tek]

Do you mean to install exhaust fan on wall or in ceiling? I can cut ceiling and put exhaust fan and air will flow in attic space. Will this reduce the moisture and condensation? Putting exhaust fan at this time on wall is difficult due to snow around the garage periphery.

NOT INTO THE ATTIC!! Ya gotta read the posts more carefully.....

 

[kbs2244]

First, he said the attic was vented.
That is important.
The moisture will follow the heat out the vents.
No condensation or mold up there.
If it isn’t well vented, don’t do it.

I agree entirely with knocking of all the slop behind the wheels before pulling in.
That is a huge amount of water.

I forgot the floor mats.
I use old carpeting scraps cut to just over car size.
In an unheated garage they catch most of the slop that isn’t removed before pulling the car inside.
It usually freezes overnight.

If it is a sunny but dry day, I pull them out and onto the drive way.
It is amazing how the dry out in the sun on a low humidly cold.
When they are past that point they go in the trash and I unroll a new one

 

[tankdriver]

For a hobby I work on WW2 rifles for people. I have a wood/metal building with end mill, and lathe, and a bunch of other metal working tools. I installed insulation, a power vent fan and vent on the other end of my shop, and a temp/hudmidity control for it. I also installed a AC that has a heater built in. I set the temp at about 55 degrees (which is as low as it will go anyway) I have no problems. Before the Heater/AC I used a 220 heater to try and keep it at about 55 degrees. The heater/AC moves the air around also. I've had no problems with moisture, or rust to anything, machines or rifles.