Dehumidifier Rental
Mary asks…
Why are my window so wet in my house?
We just moved into a rental. The windows are sopping wet every morning. I had to bleach them because fuzzy mold started to grow. It comes back after a few days. The landlord let us install storm windows. Then we had a small leak repaired in the well line under the house. My boyfriend crawled under the house and said it was very wet in the crawl space. We were hoping this would solve the problem. Then I noticed one bed room had wet spots in the corner of the wall. I also saw the attic door had drops of water seeping through it. What is going on? It has not been that cold here at night. Mid 40s to Mid 50s. We have a propane wall heater and we turned it up to try and dry out the house. I am at my wits end with this. We are going to try a dehumidifier next I suppose. Please someone help. We love this house but I don’t know how much more I can take!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sara Clarin answers:
Dehumidification is definitely the way to go. Perhaps it will only be needed seasonally, but you definitely have a lot of moist air in the house, at least in the rooms where these windows are condensing moisture on the inside due to the temperature differential inside/outside. It doesn’t have to be that cold outside to cause condensation out of warmer, moist air in the house.
Your wall heater probably isn’t drying the air out very much, but what it is doing by raising the temp is giving it greater capacity to hold moisture in the air. There also has to be a source of water to evaporate into the air. Clearing out moisture-holding materials and debris in your crawl space is a good idea, as is clearing vegetation and leaves from against exterior walls, especially on northerly exposures. If you have moisture on interior walls, you might want to investigate further for water pipe/drainage leaks inside your walls. Your attic might need better insulation as well.
Thermal pane window installation is a bit more expensive than a dehumidifier or two in the areas where they will do the most good drying out the air in the house and lowering your indoor RH, but you might be eligible for energy rebates for upgrading to energy efficient thermal pane windows, and it could be worth looking into.
Sandy asks…
Will my apartment make me pay for damages?
Background info:
Location: Thurston County, WA
Rental type: Commercial Complex
Total Rental Time: 2 yr, 4 mo.
Current Lease Length: 12 mo. (10 mo. remaining)
So, within the last 7 mo. I have had 4 floods, ranging from annoying to an “everything is floating” kind of disaster. My apartments answer to these floods was to pull up the carpets and place blowers beneath them, while also providing dehumidifiers. Too bad that didn’t take care of it….I still had this weird smell and my carpet is like…brown.
So, how can I avoid getting a bill for the carpets? Their floods were the reason they look so disgusting-but I’m afraid that they will make me pay for it, although the water damage is pretty much 100% to blame.
Edit: The floods were caused by “recalled piping” that was so weak that it split in 39248293 different places….on 4 different occasions.
Sara Clarin answers:
As long as you did not cause the floods you will not pay for anything, their insurance will.
Richard asks…
My Landlord is NOT keeping their Word. Causing us Damage and Health Problems?
When we rented our home, our landlord delayed our move in by 15 days so they could fix the gutters, leaking basement, and put new insulation in the unfinished upstairs. None of this was done. We had to move in with it unfinished because we had already given notice to our old landlords. Now it has FLOODED not leaked 2 times and we have lost almost everything that was downstairs. They did take $100 off the rent to help replace some things but did not fix it. Six weeks later its still not fixed and it flooded again. I have to scrub the basement every week with bleach because of the mold. We have to run a dehumidifier now. The insulation was just purchased but they are only going to lay it on the floor of the unfinished upstairs. There is NO insulation on the walls upstairs. They say “you don’t put it on the walls because of circulation”. It is 6ft tall and with width of the whole house. My utilities have jumped and we have put plastic on all windows and extra doors. We purchased bales of straw to put on the outside of the home. Our town is 1100 population, and we do have a child who is a junior in school. We considered moving but there are not many rentals here and our child only has 1 1/2 years left. Please give any advise you could. Thanks
Sara Clarin answers:
Landlord is correct Insulation only goes on the floor.
Water leaking into basement is not an easy fix since it is difficult to discover the source. Since you must stay then Hang heavy insulated drapes at windows. This is a problem is every old home
I also run a dehumidifier in my basement and do not use it for storage.
You could also caulk the windows and doors. Check out home depot website they have tons of inexpensive tips for winterizing your home.
Thanks for your questions