Condensation!

[AllenB]

How does everyone deal with this....I get into my detached garage about once a week just to check on my toys. When it's been pretty cold for a week or so then warms up quickly, I get MAJOR condensation on everything in a flash when I open the garage door. It's on my tools, inside the entire interior of my cars (even with the windows rolled up), everywhere there is a cool surface hit with warm air gets a visible coating of condensation on it causing rust etc. I mean it's bad! Then it takes hours or days to dry out. (I live in Columbus Ohio). Thoughts other than NOT to open the garage door?

 

[Modifieddriver]

Welcome to my club.

Set up some fans and get the air moving.

Try not to open the place so there's a significant introduction of moist outside air.

A space heater will help. I use a kerosene torpedo style heater.

 

[roblouvasz]

I have the same problem. I'm in Warren Ohio. I usually go into my garage thru the mandoor and if it's colder in the garage I'll warm up the garage before I open the door. The only thing that could prevent this is having a heated garage. Until then, I've applied several different types of rust preventive coatings on all the tools. It's nice to get warmer weather in the middle of winter but the condensation *****!

 

[Cobra6]

I had a couple of days here when it had been in the 30's and then warmed up to the mid 60's - when the concrete sla was still cool, as soon as I opened the big doors I had condensation all over the floor.

I turned on an air circulator and a large floor fan and that helped, but there is not much you can do except to keep the large doors closed. I don't have a heater hooked up yet, but I may need to get a Dayton heater in sooner than I thought.

 

[cos]

Hi Look over in heating part of forum. One way is to keep inside temps 5-8 degrees warmer than outside temps. Even if it is 30 degrees outside. Need a differental thermostat $.

 

[readhead]

There has to be a source of moisture to have condensation. Parking wet cars is most common. Next would be water migrating through the slab. Tape a piece of plastic over the slab and leave it over night. It may not even take that long. If there is water on the plastic there is your water source. Using a torpedo style heater puts water in the air. Water is a byproduct of combustion. Moving the air will help if it is leaving the space.

 

[Strouty]

I would bet that almost any of us that suffers from condensation is getting the majority of the moisture from the slab. I don't have the issue in the winter (I keep my shop at 38 when I am not there) but in the summer, I can't keep it under control. I think the only way to beat it is with AC. I have run a large dehumidifier and fans, but as soon as I open the door the slab starts sweating and becomes a slippery mess. I am actually thinking about installing some roof vents with fans to see if this will help.

 

[Greatbear]

Same problem, I will crank up the three big wall-mounted fans and the exhaust fan to help dry things up.

 

[trythis]

Burning propane inside will dump moisture in the space. Propane has water in it.

 

[AMCguy]

I had the same problem. As the outside air warms up in the morning the garage and it's contents remain relatively cold. Open the door and warm air enters. The moisture in that air condenses on all the cold surfaces in there. My tools were dripping, bench tops soaking wet, floor soaking wet. My cars had water dripping from the rocker panels, bare metal surfaces were rusting.

I finally bought an oil filled heater and a ceiling fan. I leave them on continuously from the end of October to the beginning of March. With the heater on medium, it consumes 1,000 watts. I pay 8 cents per kw/hour or less than $60.00 for a month.

Now my garage is always warmer than it is outside and my moisture problem is gone.

 

[dougmac]

I live near Seattle so we have moisture here and I have heard complaints about condensation in garages from friends and neighbors. When I built my shop, I had big concerns about condensation. I even put fans in that were controlled by a humistat in anticipation of having to deal with some moisture.

I am not sure what I did right but I have never had even a hint of a moisture problem. I have never had to use the fans. The garage is well insulated with drywall. It is not regularly heated but the temperature never drops below 40 degrees F even when it is in the teens outside.

I did install a moisture barrier under the concrete. Some say that a moisture barrier under the concrete doesn't matter but I would never pour a floor without it. My doors are 2" insulated metal doors that have good seals around them.

Even if I park a wet car in there, I do not have condensation problems... Like I said I am not sure how I managed to dodge the condensation bullet, but somehow I manged to.

 

[ears]

The moisture is in the air. Kind of like keeping a glass of ice water dry on a humid day. The only possible solution if you have your door open is to get everything heated above dew point before opening the door. My solution at work is to keep everything greasy.

 

[Lippyp]

If you have a man door then why not build a small porch on the outside (one with walls and a door, that way you can use it as a sort of airlock, open the outside door, go in, close it, open the inside door, that way you minimise the amount of outside air you let in. The porch can be on the outside or inside when I guess it'd be called a hallway or lobby! Other than that some ventilation will help equalise the temp/humidity. I've doine this at our holiday home in France for when we are away, the elctricity is off when we are not there so I have a home brewed solar powered setup with a panel, charge controller deep cycle leisure battery and two twelve volt fans on a light sensitive switch to turn them off at night. They just keep a small amount of negative pressure that pulls air in through vents lower down (fans are in the eaves) keeping some fresh air moving. I'll see if it's worked or not when we go over at Easter, we were getting mould in some corners due to the lack of air movement, this would help with condensation too.

 

[DARK AGE 53]

I even put fans in that were controlled by a humistat

Do the fans draw air from the outside, that should prevent the moister problem......other then heating the building.

 

[brownfoot]

I keep 3 ceiling fans running 24/7, 365, no heat and no rust

 

[wkends]

I have the same problem. I have a 30x40 pole building that is used to store cars in, no heat, no insulation. I keep two ceiling fans running on low all the time. That did help but on some days you still get a little condensation. A couple of weeks ago it went down to the upper 20's at night and then up to the mid 60's the next day. That is the real bad days when you open the overhead doors. Heat and insulation would fix my problem.