Serving Tarpon Springs
Wind-Driven Rain Intrusion Tarpon Springs, 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.
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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
Why can water inside the wall of an old Tarpon Springs house show up far from where it got in?
The historic district's frame vernacular houses, many built around Spring Bayou from the 1880s on, are balloon framed in pine. Their studs run unbroken from the sill to the roof, leaving an open cavity the full height of the wall. Water that enters near the eaves, or condenses inside the wall, can run down that cavity and appear at the sill, a story or more below.
How is salt water from the bayous different from rain for a Tarpon Springs home?
Rain on the Gulf wind wets a house from the top and the windward side. Water pushed up the bayous rises from below, reaching sills, slabs and the bottom of walls first, and it leaves salt in the wood and block when it drains. That salt holds on to water long after the bayou has fallen, so those lowest courses dry last.
Where does a manufactured home with an added room in Tarpon Springs take on water?
Manufactured homes make up about one in ten in Tarpon Springs. Where a room has been built on against one side of one, the joint where the addition meets the home, at the roof and down the wall, is rarely as tight as either part. Humid air works through it and condenses on the wall the home's cooling keeps cold, so stains and soft spots gather along that seam.
Each answer ties back to the Tarpon Springs overview.