There is extremely high humidity coming from my medicine cabinet and left side of bathroom vanity under the sink. The walls are interior walls. The moisture meter reads extremely high near metal studs and relatively normal surrounding areas. Pipes are pex.
My humidity in bathroom in general is around 50. Inside cabinet up to 80% It went much higher after a shower and bath vent was running. I will check it later. But the strange thing is it has shifted from the guest bath to now the master, unless I just did not notice before. We have a whole house dehumidifier.
Last person in attic did not see any leaks. And I can’t find actual wet spots. 65% on reader were studs. I used a magnet. Under sink moisture meter is around 30 (pinless) which I thought was high in some areas. But not near where the pipes go in wall. It all very stressful and confusing. I can feel it. I can’t open all the walls. The house is less than a year old.
The metal studs are going to give the meter a false reading. Leave the cabinet open for a couple of days and then retest the area. A closed cabinet is going to read higher as it is not properly vented.
Metal studs can cause issues with MM readings so I would not rely on them. Some questions to help others and ones I would ask.
- Are all walls metal studs or just all interior walls?
- Is it a single story or more?
- Are these bathrooms sitting over a basement or crawlspace area?
- Are these two bathrooms back to back or separated by other rooms?
- Moisture will increase after a shower but when none has occurred did you leave the vanity cabinet open for a period of time before taking a reading inside of it? Without air movement moisture can increase under the vanity.
- Have you tried waiting a period of time (several hours at least) with no water activity (showers, etc.) and taken readings in both bathrooms one after the other?
- Where are you located?
What moisture meter are you using?
How long do you leave the ceiling fan run?
Does the sink slope away from the walls?
Is the bathroom sink caulking stable?
Any moisure under the the bathroom cabinerty?
To curculate the bathroom, turn on the ceiling fan and come back 10 miniuts later. Then take surface stud void readings.
Do this twice to repeat the readings.
Metal is going to give off false posatives.
What kind of foundation, slab, crawlspace, basement?
Metal studs will give you false readings.
Are you running the vent fan when using the tub/shower?
There are metal studs mostly.
Yes I run the fan.
Cement slab
- Are all walls metal studs or just all interior walls? Interior walls I believe. House is cement block
- Is it a single story or more? One story
- Are these bathrooms sitting over a basement or crawlspace area? No
- Are these two bathrooms back to back or separated by other rooms? Separated by a master closet
- Moisture will increase after a shower but when none has occurred did you leave the vanity cabinet open for a period of time before taking a reading inside of it? Without air movement moisture can increase under the vanity. No but it only happens on one side
- Have you tried waiting a period of time (several hours at least) with no water activity (showers, etc.) and taken readings in both bathrooms one after the other? Yes
- Where are you located?
South Florida
What moisture meter are you using?
General no pins
How long do you leave the ceiling fan run? During shower, if longer it gets worse
Does the sink slope away from the walls? Not sure what you mean?
Is the bathroom sink caulking stable? There is no caulking it’s a solid piece no need for caulking
Any moisure under the the bathroom cabinerty? Yes, correlates with the med cabinet raises after that sink is run too
To curculate the bathroom, turn on the ceiling fan and come back 10 miniuts later. Then take surface stud void readings.
Do this twice to repeat the readings. I have. It has since gone down significantly but stays same under vanity but there is a backing on vanity so not really reading wall
Metal is going to give off false posatives. Yes I know. There are times it’s higher
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I agree with the advice of the others. Additionally, you can turn off all water sources inside the home, then go and look at the water meter. Typically, water meters have a little star-shaped spinner that spins whenever water is running and it’s VERY SENSITIVE (that is, if there were a faucet dripping very slowly, you’d be able to see it if you stare at the star for a couple minutes). I know you are not looking for a dripping faucet, that’s simply an example of how sensitive the star is. I think it spins one 360 degree turn for every 1/100 of a gallon.
Time to hire an inspector that specializes in moisture issues. Let them use their knowlege and expertise to discover what is causing the issues.
You might want to get a blower door test done, With Infrared thermography. Also you will want to find out if the A/C system is causing a negative pressure in the house. Moisture doesn’t just show up something is driving it. Most air leaks can’t just be seen they can be detected by other means.
Had blower envelope teat before moved in. Is that the same
Yes that is the test but if it was only done for code compliance then it
will not tell you much. If the house has an unvented attic the number
should have been below an ACH50 of 3. If you are in Florida the code
requirement is below 7. So the house could pass code but still have a
very leaky spray foam job. The blower door test with infrared will show
you where the leaks are.
Would that be the reason the bath fan running too much makes it higher?
Would love to private message you. Is there a way
You can Email to faradatenergyllc@gmail.com
The email did not work.
Sorry spelled it wrong faradayenergyllc@gmail.com