Drying Water Damaged Buildings in the Hot Humid Summer

Drying a water damaged building in the humid weather is much different than drying a building in the dry weather. In many areas of the world there is a dry season and a wet season.

In the dry season it is often so dry that the use of dehumidification in a water damage is only necessary to remove excess moisture created by evaporation of moisture from wet building materials and contents of the home. The facility is typically dry in one to three days with minimal use of dehumidification.

When the season changes and we get hot, humid weather everything changes. In humid weather dehumidification is used not only to remove moisture created by evaporation but its used to create an atmosphere conducive to allow evaporation to come to pass. When the air is humid water does not readily evaporate.

How can you tell whether or not the air is conducive to allow evaporation? You can only do this by measuring the relative humidity and temperature of the affected air space and then make the necessary calculations to find the absolute humidity or humidity ratio of the air space. This absolute humidity is measured by the number of grains of water there is in every pound of air in the airspace.

If the air is not dry enough, it is highly unlikely that structural materials like concrete, wood and stone will dry. In any water damage situation the water damage technician should be closely monitoring the moisture content of all structural materials in the facility. Many disaster restoration companies use infrared cameras to help track areas that are affected by moisture.

It is extremely important to deal with disaster restoration companies that are concerned with drying your facility until their meters show that your structure is dry. If the company you are dealing with is not providing you with this information then you are exposing yourself to possibly horrific consequences. Sinister mould grows easily in water damaged buildings. Mould can grow very quickly in improperly remediated buildings.

General contractors and carpet cleaners are often the first people called in to remediate a water damage situation. These type of contractors may or may not be able to properly dry a building. Do your homework and ask your contractors questions to determine whether or not they have the training to be able to dry a building.

Ask them if they have the moisture meters (not sensors) to be able to track the process of drying. Ask them whether or not you get a copy of the records at the end of the job. Ask them whether or not there are hard to dry structural items in your structure. Ask them how they are going to dry them. Ask them what their drying goals are. Ask them whether or not they have water damage remediation training. Ask them when they received their certification. The water damage business has progressed significantly over the past five to ten years. There are dramatic changes in the Standards for water damage and someone without recent upgrades in their education may no longer understand the new findings of the drying industry.

James (Lee) Senter is an IICRC Approved Instructor on the subjects of Water Damage Remediation, Applied Structural Drying and Health and Safety. Mr. Senter teaches at The Center For Disaster Recovery and several industry distributors across Canada. Lee is a well known speaker and writer on the subjects of mould remediation and water damage restoration. Lee owns a company that performs large and small water damage remediations and can be found at http://www.dryit.ca.

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Summer: A Season of Humidity and Air Woes

Prevalent significant problems concerning fast growing molds in schools have been a growing concern for school administrators and maintenance teams, particularly during summer breaks. While more prevalent in the warmer, more humid climate of the southeastern region of the United States, it is also a concern of the states that sit in the eastern region of the Rocky Mountains.

It is speculated that these problems are due to a certain set of prevailing factors. One of the most prevalent causes is the absence of circulating air. During summer breaks, when the school is somewhat vacant, the HVAC system that is used for cooling is substantially reduced in operation and in some areas of the building is turned off altogether. Another reason for increased mold growth during this time is that the humidity in outside air in these regions tends to increase during the summer months. Additionally, other maintenance activities such as painting, cleaning of carpets and resealing floors are usually done during these breaks when students and school staff are not present. When this occurs, maintenance of the HVAC system often falls to the wayside, as school breaks are a more opportune time to conduct other maintenance tasks.

In an effort to reduce the occurrence of mold during summer breaks, some schools are revamping the design of their HVAC system to specify the necessary controls that will better control the introduction of humid outdoor air in to the occupied space. For places in these schools where occupancy sensors are being used to detect and control the usage of lights like in the administrators' offices or comfort rooms, automated outdoor air dampers are advised. The installation of switches or timers, which close the dampers and can be operated manually, is another way to accomplish this task. However, this solution involves some complexities that could potentially result in more serious mold problems.

Another issue for consideration is the manual thermostat overrides. The staff and teachers can easily activate the HVAC system while working during non-standard hours such as weekends, holiday breaks, or evenings when an override for each manual is being provided. A simple override button will provide occupants the environmental comfort for a present period of time, usually anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes. This would work two-fold in that it would provide a comfortable temperature to the occupants as well as circulating air within the building thus reducing the occurrence of moisture in the air that can lead to mold.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) sensors should also be taken into consideration during summer periods. These sensors can do the responsibilities of controlling the outdoor air dampers when the occupancy in that certain area may be discontinuous, fluctuate or be nonexistent.

The Environmental Protection Agency has an extensive website, chock full of information regarding mold in the schools. The website, http://www.epa.gov/mold/i-e-r.html, has practical advice that is easily assimilated and understood. The information gleaned from this site can help schools improve the IAQ in the classroom.

Greg McNary has over 25 years experience in the HVAC industry in various positions including service, sales, and management. He is the marketing and operations manager for Air Distributors Company, Inc., a distributor for McQuay Parts and McQuay PTAC Units.

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