Another good point, have a freezer or a refrigerator in there. They will not need to run much but will also help keep the interior ever so slightly warmer
How do you prevent dew inside your garage?
- Thread starter The motor guy
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In my old house I had a detached garage with no window, and on highly humid days it would be damp in there. I'd see it on my van believe it or not. When I had the roof done I had a ridge vent installed, that solved the problem. Movement and exchanging of air in very damp areas helps. My brother cut a hole through his garage wall, about 2' from the ceiling when he lived on Long Island and installed a small solar exhaust fan, that helped a lot. I know people using dehumidifiers with a hose going through the wall allowing for the captured water to exit outside of the garage and away from it.
I have a detached garage with a ton of airflow through the soffits and still struggle with damp. Whenever we have a big temperature change anything metallic is dripping wet.
Going to put a sheet of DPM or polythene up next week and staple it to the joists so I can insulate above and start leaving a thermostatically controlled heater on.
Going to put a sheet of DPM or polythene up next week and staple it to the joists so I can insulate above and start leaving a thermostatically controlled heater on.
I have both a dehumidifier and a heater in my shop. It stays warm and dry.
The heater is an electricity hog, but I pay a flat electric fee in the lease, so that doesn’t concern me.
The dehumidifier has a pump, so, while it sits in the middle of the shop, it pumps the water outside via a 1/4” line.
I would run a dehumidifier first - it circulates air and removes moisture. With the pump, you never have to empty a bucket (which would be a daily thing in my shop, and likely, in your garage).
You’re bringing moisture in with wet trucks, so take it out with a dehumidifier. I think mine was $300 at Home Depot or Lowe’s
The heater is an electricity hog, but I pay a flat electric fee in the lease, so that doesn’t concern me.
The dehumidifier has a pump, so, while it sits in the middle of the shop, it pumps the water outside via a 1/4” line.
I would run a dehumidifier first - it circulates air and removes moisture. With the pump, you never have to empty a bucket (which would be a daily thing in my shop, and likely, in your garage).
You’re bringing moisture in with wet trucks, so take it out with a dehumidifier. I think mine was $300 at Home Depot or Lowe’s
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It's not cold. That's the whole reason everything is sweating. It was 22 degrees a week ago and now it's 68 degrees.
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Both. Warmer air has a higher moisture capacity and a dehumidifier strips the moisture out of the air. End result is warm dry air that wants to suck up moisture, not precipitate it.
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Ahh okay so no air leaks from the warm/humid house into the cold garage. In any case my comment still stands regarding the dehumidifier. Garages are by design leaky and damp. The slab and tools are still cold enough to allow water vapor to condense out on the surface. Either keep a garage window or door open to reduce the temp delta or fire up a dehumidifier and start dehumidifying the outside (garages are considered "outside"). If you want to get fancy pay a company to install a wall mounted minisplit in the garage.
Not much you can do to prevent this. When the air temp rose, so did the dewpoint. Everything in your garage is still colder, below the dewpoint.
^= condensation.
Heat the garage to raise it's contents above dew point and the condensation will stop. Else, wait for equilibrium to occur naturally. Eventually temps will stabilize.
^= condensation.
Heat the garage to raise it's contents above dew point and the condensation will stop. Else, wait for equilibrium to occur naturally. Eventually temps will stabilize.
Dehumidifiers take the water out of the air and puts it in a bucket or drain line. Heaters allow the air to be warmer but do nothing with the water molecules.
OPs issue is all his furniture-- toolboxes etc are metal, hold cold, and cause moist tropical air to condense on them. He needs the dew point lower than the coldest thing in the room. Adding heat to a particular volume of air doesn't change its dew point much, though its relative humidity will change.
Well sure but remember dehumidifiers add a little sensible heat to the room.
It was easy, I moved to Kingman,, Arizona.
I always keep my doors closed when the humidity is high, use a dehumidifier and don't have any problems especially in spring type weather. I also run it during the hot humid days in the summer with a couple of fans running and people think my shop is air conditioned which it's not.
ls1mike
$50 Site Donor 2024
Run a dehumidifier in each bay.
Thank you guys!!
Hahahhahahaha
Because you guys, I go out to the main attached garage and there is a small pool of water around my first resin tank (oxidation aeration for natural sulfur compounds), it's the first tank so the coldest. At first I thought LEAK!! Nope the water is so freaking cold and our temp today is freaky warm and wet............you know where this is going.......I wiped it off and passed through to the breezeway. You did this!!
Hahahhahahaha
Because you guys, I go out to the main attached garage and there is a small pool of water around my first resin tank (oxidation aeration for natural sulfur compounds), it's the first tank so the coldest. At first I thought LEAK!! Nope the water is so freaking cold and our temp today is freaky warm and wet............you know where this is going.......I wiped it off and passed through to the breezeway. You did this!!
Live in Houston, have old garage with zero insulation. It would get WET inside, like dripping wet. I put in a powered vent fan and that has cured that.
My water heater takes care of any moisture out there. Usually not a day that goes by that it doesn't run.
All good options above. I didn’t want to run a dehumidifier in my garage during humid summer days so I buy a few 4 lb Damprid buckets and run a small fan to circulate the air. Works well for me.
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how long do those last?
About 2 months for me.
Edit: Pic shown is a 2 lb bucket but they sell 4 lb too.
Edit: Pic shown is a 2 lb bucket but they sell 4 lb too.
