Help! My floor is sweating!

[~Tullymoor~]

:shock: We haven't been here for a summer yet and the last two days have been hot...30 odd today. I leave windows and doors open but when I get home all the tiles (kitchen,laundry,bathrooms) are wet, like they've been mopped. We have to walk around very carefully so we don't slip over and break our bums :D They aren't drying out either.
I just *know* one of you guys will have an answer......ok, near the coast (about 6 kms north of) , near Port Fairy, Victoria, brick and iron roofed house (about 10 or 12 years old I guess) on a concrete slab. Kitchen gets some morning sun, other areas no direct sun....there is a little tiled area near a glass sliding door in the lounge to outside (nth facing but with deep verandah) and that door was partly open all day today and even it is wet :(
Please any ideas?????
Gawd, I HOPE this is not why the house was sold!!!
Edited to add: I just went into the ensuite and the floor is soaked!!! Like someone got out of a pool onto the tiles!! OMG, I hope someone has an answer to this, you can't live like this, it's dangerous and what about mould that's gonna just love these conditions????? :( :( :(

[Cornonthecob]

lol same here...my wife is going crazy trying to work out why. Am waiting anxiously for some info. Have never seen this before...weird!

[~Tullymoor~]

Oh, thank God Corny, at least it's not just our place!
What makes it worse is that my vaccuum cleaner has been US for months and so there is filth everywhere and combined with the water...well, it's bad :(

[Mcgrathfarm]

you have ghosts! :lol: Try a dehumidifier. See this web site, it might be helpful.

http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/burema/ge ... e_ce27.cfm (http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/burema/gesein/abhose/abhose_ce27.cfm)

Cheers

Mrs Mac

[~Tullymoor~]

In hot, muggy weather, ventilate your house as little as possible. Air out your house when there's a dry spell and no chance of moisture problem
Hmmmmm, can't leave the house locked up all day....the dogs are left inside :(

[Tamandco]

There's no pipes that could be leaking? or the fridge defrosting cos of the heat? freezer? hot water service? If there's that much water, it couldn't possibly be condensation.

My inlaws tiled shower base was leaking and the water spread all over the slab. There house was about 10 years old at the time. Do you have a tiled shower base? or a resin one?

A house I shared years ago also had this problem. They had carpet everywhere, including the bathroom and toilet, and it was all saturated, right down the corridor. I thought it was the toilet at first, turned out to be the shower base.

Hope you manage to sort it out.

Tam

[earthbound]

Just as an idea, to eliminate possibilities........ Dry things out in the morning before you go to work, then turn off your water at the mains tap (assuming you have one).. If you get home and things aren't wet, then maybe there is a leak in your water pipes somewhere, perhaps in a wall.... If it's still wet, then maybe it's the ghosts...

What sort of hot water do you have, a storage tank in the roof?

[Cornonthecob]

We dry the floors witha towel and straight after they're 'sweating' again. Have never seen tiles do that!!

No leaks...nothing wet about the place...just weird floors sweating....

The only thing different is the weather.....must be that

[~Tullymoor~]

Nope, hot water service is outside. Resin showerbases. Have looked at the slab outside/verandah etc and it is dry. No fridges or freezers doing anything. I think if I had leaking pipes my pump would be switching on?? I realise you mean "outgoing" pipe could be leaking but all these tiled areas are in different and not adjoining parts of the house with carpet in between. Carpet is dry.
It is "sweating" that's the only way to descibe it....like Corny said.

[~Tullymoor~]

Ok so now temps have dropped...it's 10.30pm and the kitchen /laundry and second bath and loo are now dry. It's just the ensuite, which was the worst, is still damp but there in no airflow into there either. Will see if it's dry in the moning.
I'm glad I have no little kids or oldies here ....they would slip and fall for sure.

[Snake]

Tully & Corn,

Just a thought: any idea on the ambient humidity? If the temperature outside is warming up, the air is capable of holding more moisture (water vapour). If your house is on a concrete slab that has sufficient thermal mass and that does not receive much solar heating, it may remain relatively cool compared to its surroundings; this coolness will translate to tiled areas as well. In conditions of high humidity where you are drawing air in from outside that is humid, into a cooler environment inside, it may be that sufficient cooling occurs in the air for condensation to occur and it will most likely happen on cool surfaces such as the tiled floor. If you are near the coast with an onshore breeze then it is likely to be quite moist as well. There is a Bureau of Meteorology weather station at Port Fairy that gives regular measurements of temperature and humidity - see:
http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/vic/vic-o ... -map.shtml (http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/vic/vic-observations-map.shtml)
and click on Port Fairy for the last 72 hours of data.

Hope this is of some use! Cheers,

Mark[/url]

[~Tullymoor~]

Hey, thanks Mark, that all makes sense. I checked out that weather site but I don't know what "high" is.....I guess 70's and 80's and a 90 is high, huh?? We had half a dozen humungous raindrops at 4.30ish and it was meant to rain and storm but it didn't eventuate. It reminded me of Coffs Harbour summer weather :shock: but at least NSW does GET decent storms...Vic storms are weak as water , pardon the sick pun :lol:

[Snake]

G'day Tully,

What are you still doing up at this hour? As for humidity, for condensation to occur the temperature would have to be cooled to dewpoint; the higher the percentage of humidity the less cooling that is needed for this to occur and I notice that you have been enjoying some pretty muggy conditions with humidity up around the 75-90% mark so it is probably possible. Are your floors quite cold? Here in Geraldton we currently have 73% humidity, the temperature is 13.7 degrees and the dewpoint is 8.9 degrees, so it would need to cool 4.8 degrees for condensation to start. I see that at 11pm you need 2.6 degrees of cooling to reach the dewpoint at 85% humidity - anyway, you get the idea :roll:

Victoria being a little further south does not get quite the vertical extent of thunderstorms that Sydney occasionally enjoys, but they do get some doozies just the same!

Cheers,

Mark

[baldcat]

ok so ,
here is some info.. MAy not be related but I thought it was interesting enough though to warrant a post.



Granite tiles and slabs are normally processed by using water as a medium for cutting. This is the industry accepted method for processing granite. However, there are many manufacturers that use kerosene in place of water as a medium for cutting, then soak the granite in water to remove the kerosene from the surface. Although the kerosene cannot be seen on the surface, because granite is porous, the kerosene remains within the granite.

Using kerosene in place of water increases the life of the diamond tools used in processing the granite by 20%-30%. This allows the end prices of the granite to be lower for material processed with kerosene, but results in an inferior product for the following reasons:

When kerosene is absorbed by granite, it will trigger the dormant ferrous and ferric particles in the minerals. Once these latent particles are triggered, the chemicals formed will eventually find their way out of the polished surface, creating discolorations and pit holes.

The polished surface, which normally lasts for years, will begin showing dull patches within 1 1/2 to 2 years on kerosene processed granite. In many cases the polish is lost on the entire batch of granite giving a honed, rather than polished finish.

When kerosene processed granite is used over radiant heating systems, the kerosene will slowly evaporate out of the granite causing health hazards and unpleasant odors.

[baldcat]

Try this,,,

To determine whether the water is seeping in from the outside or condensing inside, tape a twelve-inch square of aluminum foil to the floor that is prone to dampness, sealing all four sides to make the surface behind the foil as airtight as possible. In a day or two, if the side of the foil that was against the wall is wet, the problem is seepage. If the outside is wet, it's condensation

[baldcat]

This is to do with a basement, but same pricipal would apply.


Atmospheric moisture produces condensation ("sweating") on cool surfaces in the basement, particularly walls, floors, and cold water pipes. Solution: Insulate the water pipes. Promote good ventilation--sunlight and free movement of air can quickly dry out a basement. Ventilation should be governed by weather conditions. During hot, humid weather or long rainy spells, windows should be closed because the outside air will probably contain more moisture than the basement air. Heat the basement during the winter. During hot weather, use air conditioning to cool and dehumidify the air

[Steve J.]

Nice lateral thinking Dan, I like it.

Steve

[~Tullymoor~]

Other people around the area were saying they had the same probs....humidity it is :?
Another thing that happened but I didn't say cos you'd think I was a big whinger :D we were invaded by thrips (well, a bit bigger than thrips, but I'll call em thrips) The walls and tv and puter monitor and ceiling and doors and windows and flyscreens and, well, the whole house basically :lol: They were crawling out of my handbag when I got to work this morning :oops: I thought it would have been just our "problem" and just another summer-thing to look forward to (not) but people were talking about that too!!
So, there ya go. Tonight is cold and windy and thripless and beautiful :D

[Steve J.]

Make undies out of fly mess, that will keep the thrips out, at least then they won't be "everywhere" (some places need no thrips)

S.

[~Tullymoor~]

Stevie Weevie, :heart: :rock: :heart: I love you, you *know* I love you :axe: but, YA WHA?????

Flypoo undies??????? :lol: :lol: :lol:
Reckon I'll set up a thrip rope instead :roll:

[Tamandco]

Stevie Weevie, please explain!

Tully, is this the little bugger?

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-7/1054191/bug.jpg

Cos his whole family was at my place last night too. I even breathed one in! :pukeleft:

[~Tullymoor~]

That must be a super-close-up pic Tam! I had to go and look at one (they're still all over the place) to see if was them, it is. They are about as long as a match head?

[Tamandco]

Yup. Hanging around the computer screen last night and all over my off white curtains this morning. There's still a few hanging around. They commit hurry curry over the light shades which are like upside lightshades. Which are now full of them. I just suck them up with the vacuum cleaner. They can fit through the fly wire which is a real pain. Later on in the year we'll get xmas beetles which can fit UNDER the flywire screens. They're a pain too. No point in cleaning the house, it always look messy cos there's bugs everywhere!

[Steve J.]

It's all too hard to explain, I just though undies made out of fly screen material would keep the thrips out of ‘everywhere’ (ie ya bum).... sorry my humour is at a low point tonight and I was clutching at straws, it was bogus in hindsight.

S.

[Tamandco]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Stevie Weevie, you made a typo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Read through your post again.

[Steve J.]

Argggg, not only is my humour at a low point but now I a get mess and mesh mish-mashed! (that is very hard to say after 14 whiskey’s and a carton of beer) what a silly duffer am I.

[Tamandco]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: