Serving Key West
Humidity & Moisture Drying Key West, FL
When the outdoor air is wetter than the building, opening windows adds water. Drying means a closed building and conditioned air. The building is closed to outdoor air and its air is dehumidified, because in the humid season outside air adds water. Materials are read until they match unaffected material in the same building, including inside block and slab.
Switch off the air handler if it is dripping
Often needed alongside
- AC Condensate & Drain Line Leaks
An air conditioner makes water every day it runs. When its drain clogs or its pan cracks, that water goes into the ceiling or the slab.
- Wind-Driven Rain Intrusion
Wind pushes rain sideways through window frames, stucco and the base of the wall. The roof can hold and the house still take water.
Frequently asked questions
Why do the floorboards of a closed Key West frame house feel damp in the fall?
A closed wood frame house raised on piers lets outdoor air move freely beneath it and rise through the gaps between the floorboards into rooms with no cooling running, and about one Key West home in seven is held for seasonal use. By the fall the boards, rugs and furniture legs have taken up a summer of that air. Running the cooling for a few days before judging the floor lets it settle.
In an older Key West house, where does a ductless wall unit's water end up?
Each indoor head of a ductless system pulls water from the room's air and sends it out through a small drain line. Where one has been added to a house of the late 1960s, that line may run down inside the wall to an outlet outdoors. If it kinks, sags or slips off its fitting, the water runs into the wall cavity instead. Soft drywall or a stain below an indoor head points to its line.
What do salt wind and rain do to the porch of a Key West house?
The city's center lies about a mile from the open coast, and September's rain arrives on wind carrying salt off the water. On a raised frame house the porch floor and steps take that rain first, and where they meet the house wall, water and salt gather at the joint. Salt holds moisture from the humid air, so the boards there stay wet between storms. Keeping that joint flashed and painted protects the wall.
Each answer ties back to the Key West overview.