Serving Milton
Wind-Driven Rain Intrusion Milton, 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 is behind the siding of a late-1980s Milton house, and why does it matter for water?
Fiberboard sheathing, where a house of the late 1980s was built with it, is a soft board between the siding and the framing. Rain that gets past a gap in the siding soaks into it, and fiberboard holds water rather than shedding it, pressing it against the studs. With cooled rooms on the other side, the board dries slowly through the summer. Soft or crumbling sheathing at a window corner shows where it has been wet longest.
Why does a garage air handler in an older Milton house make the rooms damp?
Where an air handler stands in the garage on a framed platform that serves as its return, the platform's seams and the gaps around its access panel let the fan draw garage air in with the house air. In summer that air is hot and humid, and the cooling has to remove its water as well as the rooms'. Sealing the platform's joints so it draws only from the house fixes it.
Does runoff reach Milton houses on lots that fall toward the Blackwater River?
Milton sits beside the Blackwater River, with its center about 62 feet above sea level. Where a lot falls toward the river, the rain from a July storm on the streets above runs down across it, past the walls and slab edge on the uphill side of the house. A swale that turns that water around the house, rather than against it, keeps the wall dry.
Milton's own page carries them beside the local figures.