Hello all knowledgeable people.
We have just had our house in kit form erected and made weather-tight by two carpenters. The house rests on a joist structure, which in turn rests on an insulated crawl space foundation (i.e., there is no drying concrete slab underneath, but the sill is placed directly on a radon mat with 300 mm insulation underneath).
The timber has been under tarpaulin during the construction period and, to my knowledge, has not been exposed to direct rain (unless it happened at the house supplier) and has no discoloration. But when I measure the moisture content now, it is at 17-18% in the studs/joists/sill. The meter is a cheap one, with a precision specified at +- 2%, so the value could be somewhere between 16-20% if one can rely on it.
For this reason, I'm wondering what to do about dehumidification and insulation/vapor barrier moving forward? Is it just a matter of proceeding or should I install 45 insulation, put a vapor barrier in the ceiling and run a heater+dehumidifier for a few weeks before putting plastic on the walls?
We have just had our house in kit form erected and made weather-tight by two carpenters. The house rests on a joist structure, which in turn rests on an insulated crawl space foundation (i.e., there is no drying concrete slab underneath, but the sill is placed directly on a radon mat with 300 mm insulation underneath).
The timber has been under tarpaulin during the construction period and, to my knowledge, has not been exposed to direct rain (unless it happened at the house supplier) and has no discoloration. But when I measure the moisture content now, it is at 17-18% in the studs/joists/sill. The meter is a cheap one, with a precision specified at +- 2%, so the value could be somewhere between 16-20% if one can rely on it.
For this reason, I'm wondering what to do about dehumidification and insulation/vapor barrier moving forward? Is it just a matter of proceeding or should I install 45 insulation, put a vapor barrier in the ceiling and run a heater+dehumidifier for a few weeks before putting plastic on the walls?
What decision did you make? I'm having the same thoughts now...
Good evening. We ended up covering the roof with plastic and blew in 40 cm of cellulose, then an additional 45 mm insulation in the walls. It was possible to get the temperature up to 18-20°C, but it was between 3-10°C outside during those weeks, which helped. However, I only have 2 x 2 Kw heaters; you can always burn more for the crows and buy a few more. I bought a Woods dehumidifier and the aforementioned construction heaters, which ran for three weeks before we continued with the plastic. According to the measurement, it was then 15-16°C on two separate meters.Y Yojimbo22 said:
Thanks! Leaning towards the same, but probably just spray and plastic the joists and take the walls later. Possibly put insulation on the upper half of the walls.