for Cold Climate Housing and much more

Found 116 results for the keyword ‘Moisture’

  • WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT THE NEUTRAL PLANE?

    Warm moist air leaking out of the house through the walls and ceilings is the major cause of condensation and water damage to the structure of the house. In the worst of cases it can cause paint to peel off the outside of the house, start mould growing in the walls, decrease the insulating v...
  • HOW CAN I RAISE THE NEUTRAL PLANE?

    If there are larger holes in the top of the house than in the bottom of the house, the neutral plane will be raised.I guarantee that if the roof of your house were removed (still blocking the snow with a giant umbrella) there would be no condensation problems in the walls. (This solution is no...
  • HOW DO I GET MY PLANNED-HOLE-HIGH-IN-THE-HOUSE?

    The best household ventilation system is a constant operation fan powered balanced air-change system -- a central system that sucks stale air out an exhaust duct and blows an almost equal amount of fresh air into the house through an intake duct. These systems will usually require a heater o...
  • SHOULD CLOTHES DRYERS VENT INDOORS OR OUTDOORS?

    Clothes dryers should vent outdoors.However, clothes dryers do make excellent humidifiers and if you really want a ton of water vapour in the laundry room you could very well vent yours indoors.Special lint traps and by-pass valves exist to aid you in venting a clothes dryer indoors in the win...
  • WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO SAY A WALL MUST BREATH?

    The easiest way to stop the bathtub from overflowing is to turn off the water. If the faucet leaks, we have to pull the plug to let the dripping water out the drain as fast as it comes into the tub.Warm, humid air leaking into the walls of a house is like a faucet flooding the tub. Even a go...
  • MYTH: THE MORE ATTIC VENTILATION IN WINTER THE BETTER.

    Not true for all parts of Canada!In certain regions (most of the data is from the National Research Council in the Saskatoon area) it appears that the only effective way to stop continuous accumulation of frost in the attic is to not ventilate at all during the worst of winter, but to seal the...
  • CONFUSION: POWER ATTIC VENTILATORS ARE NOT RECOMMENDED FOR WINTER USE. WHY?

    The main reason for not recommending power vents in the attic is that the attic is usually not well sealed, and the power vent, in sucking air out of the attic, creates a negative pressure in the attic. This negative pressure sucks warm air and humidity through the ceiling leaks into the att...
  • SHOULD I ADD VENTILATION TO A FLAT TOP OR BASIN TYPE ROOF?

    Be careful, we are still learning how to deal with these difficult structures after adding roof space insulation. The problem is that the air volume and its flat thin shape do not efficiently dry out the roof space as does the large vertical air space of a peaked roof.The cardinal rule is to ...
  • SHOULD THE ATTIC BE VENTILATED IN THE SUMMER?

    Yes. The attic absorbs a great deal of heat from the sun during the summer and becomes much hotter than the rest of the house. The better your attic is insulated, the less this heat build-up will affect the temperature of the house. Venting the attic replaces this heated attic air with air...
  • WHAT IS THE SOLUTION TO CONDENSATION PROBLEMS?

    In theory, that is very easy to answer. Condensation is caused when warm moist air either receives more moisture, or gets colder, or both. The solution is simple: stop the addition of moisture (by stopping the generation of moisture or venting off excess moisture), or raise the temperature...