Serving Auburndale
Wind-Driven Rain Intrusion Auburndale, FL
Wind pushes rain sideways through window frames, stucco and the base of the wall. The roof can hold and the house still take water. The walls on the side the wind came from are traced first, at windows, sliders, the base of the wall and the soffits. Block that took on water is dried from inside the closed building rather than left to the outdoor air.
Switch off the air handler if it is dripping
Often needed alongside
- Humidity & Moisture Drying
When the outdoor air is wetter than the building, opening windows adds water. Drying means a closed building and conditioned air.
- Storm Surge & Tidal Flooding
Surge and tidal water rise from the ground up and carry salt and silt with them. Anything porous they soaked is treated as contaminated.
Frequently asked questions
What leaves a damp stain low on an Auburndale wall where the cooling lines come in?
Usually the gap around the lines themselves. Where the copper refrigerant lines of a house from around 1990 pass through the outside wall, the opening is often wider than the pipes and was never sealed. Outdoor air drifts into the wall cavity through it, meets the cold suction line, and condenses. Sealing the opening outside and checking the line's foam sleeve inside the wall ends it.
How does a June storm reach a house on a lot sloping toward Lake Ariana?
From uphill. Lake Ariana covers 1,019 acres, and rain on the higher streets and yards runs down toward its shore. A house standing between the street and the lake sits in that path, so its uphill wall, the slab edge on that side and any door facing the street take the water first. A swale that carries it around the house helps most.
Why do the lake-facing windows of an Auburndale house drip on summer mornings?
Because the glass is colder than the air outside it. A house that looks over Lake Ariana takes its morning air straight off the water, and where single-pane or older glass is cooled from the room side, that air condenses on the outer face and runs down to the sill. Wet sills and lifting paint below those windows show where it has been collecting.
Back to Auburndale for the housing and weather behind them.