We have a gym. It has concrete walls and tiled floors. When it is humid or raining outside the floor becomes slick. We've bought a small dehumidifier and it helps, but not enough. We don't know whether to turn the heat up or down, if fans would help, or if putting padding on the walls. Any ideas?
2007-03-22 15:04:36 · 8 answers · asked by davemackey 2 in Home & Garden ➔ Do It Yourself (DIY)
The biggest thing that might help is to increase ventilation. Get some fresh air from the outside moving through the place. If you can - and depending on the size of your building - put an industrial exhaust fan at one end of the building and an air intake hole at the other. Then set the fan to run intermittently. This will draw fresh & drier air in one end and blow the damp air out the other end.
If you can't build an exhaust fan into the wall to move the air, consider opening doors & windows as required. Setting up regular fans in the windows or doorways would increase the effectiveness. You want to do this on dry days to lower the general humidity in the building and to get the "stale" air moved out. Even if the fresh air has the same humidity levels, the movement of the air will dry up the floors.
If your situation is such that this doesn't help enough, you may want to increase the heat. The water may be forming because the conditions for dew-point are met. Raising the heat would change the dew-point, hopefully to the point where the water would not condense on the floors. (Study the dew-point in weather terms and the same principles apply.)
One last suggestion would be to install ceiling fans. They use very little electricity and are quite effective. If you can't get fresh air into the gym, at least the air movement would be beneficial.
2007-03-22 16:41:32 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
We had this same trouble and couldn't find a solution for the life of us... FINALLY, one day after we had installed a new heating system.(water heat from an outdoor boiler system) we noticed the place drying up.
Now you would think water heating would create more moisture but it didn't. Soon our place was out of the 75% range and down to the 40's-50's range.
I have over 75 house plants and people were telling me that the humidity was from them. Well it turned out to NOT be my plants and very glad I didn't get rid of them all. We have 2 dehumidifiers on back up just in case it ever rises, but since changing our heat source it has been cleared up.
: )
2007-03-23 04:15:42 · answer #2 · answered by Kitty 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That's the problem with a slab floor without a vapor barrier in the south east. They sweat when it gets wet and is cooler inside than out. I used fans and lots of lysol to keep the mold down. Wall work won't help it is your floor.
2007-03-22 15:12:25 · answer #3 · answered by lilabner 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That is condensation forming on the floor. Warm humid air ,cold floor. An air conditioner acts as a dehumidifier.
2007-03-22 17:03:43 · answer #4 · answered by PAUL A 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Fans will definitely help. You may consider dry away paint. Waterproof paint. If you put padding on the walls, you will end up with a mold problem. Ventilation is definitely a plus.
2007-03-22 16:00:13 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Set bowls of charcoal around it will help with some of the moisture. Change them out every couple of week and them reuse them again.
2007-03-22 15:29:26 · answer #6 · answered by jre 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
try a larger capacity de-humidifier they are sq. ft. specific. home depot has one that offers air con., heat, and de-humidifaction options for less than $400.00
2007-03-22 15:17:45 · answer #7 · answered by breakn_the_chains 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
isolators
2007-03-24 00:23:43 · answer #8 · answered by syrixez31 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋