How to reduce humidity in the apartment: causes, solutions

The norm of air humidity is the level of 60-70%. If the air in the house or apartment is too humid, discomfort appears and health worsens. Things are damp, there is a smell of dampness and, most importantly, mold appears. Mold fungus is harmful to humans and leads to certain types of diseases.

How to reduce humidity in the apartment and what to do to dry the air, we will analyze in detail below.

You can dry the air every day without getting a long-term result. To solve the problem of excessive humidity in a room, apartment or house, you need to approach it comprehensively. It will be possible to fix the problem by finding out the cause of the appearance of dampness and solving it forever.

Why is it humid in the apartment

It must be understood that moisture can enter the apartment from the external environment or accumulate inside for various reasons. The easiest way to solve the problem with high humidity, if its origin lies in the apartment itself. It could be:

1. Faulty ventilation.
2. Water flow.
3. Frequent washing with drying clothes.
4. Many moisture-loving houseplants.
5. Poor window seals.
6. Wrong insulation.

The flow of moisture from the outside is much more difficult to solve, its causes are:

1. current roof.
2. Cracks in the walls.
3. Incorrect waterproofing of the foundation and the presence of water in the basement.

For residents of apartments, some problems must be solved by the operating organization. In a private house, all your problems. In any case, it’s worth starting with a ventilation check.

Ventilation

Most often, in apartments, problems with high humidity arise precisely because of ventilation. When replacing wooden windows with plastic ones, the air flow into the room is significantly reduced and evaporation is not removed. The problem is solved by installing inlet valves.

There is a ventilation grill in the bathroom or toilet, as well as in the kitchen. To check the efficiency of the hood, bring a burning candle or match to it – the flame should lean towards it. With another method of checking, a sheet of paper leaning against the grate must be held by the created vacuum in the hood. If there is draft, ventilation is in order.

If the sheet is not holding, then open the window. A sheet drawn to the grate says that there is no air flow and you need to organize it. With the normalization of the inflow, the increased humidity will go away.

If the sheet does not hold, then the problem is with the exhaust duct. In this case, you need to write a statement to the management company in order to identify the cause and eliminate the malfunction.

In a private house, the cause of non-working ventilation will have to be found out by yourself. If the problem is recent, the chimney may be clogged. If the difficulties are chronic, then it is necessary to redo the ventilation, change the height of the exhaust pipe, increase the diameter, etc.

Household

A common cause of high humidity is frequent washes and drying clothes. And if at the same time ventilation does not work well, then the situation is aggravated. In the absence of a balcony or loggia, you have to dry clothes by hanging them throughout the apartment. If this is done on an ongoing basis, you need to reconsider your habits.

A large number of moisture-loving plants, large open aquariums lead to the appearance of humidity. In this case, actions to reduce evaporation will help reduce the humidity in the house. For example, cover the aquarium and the ground near the plants.

Трубопроводы

An unpleasant cause of high humidity can be water leakage in the pipes. This applies to both plumbing and sewerage. A hidden plumbing system in a bathroom or kitchen will complicate the search for a leak, but it is still easier to find and fix it than a leak in the floor. The apartment above will be dry, and the ceiling or wall in the lower apartment will be wet.

If the pipes were replaced not so long ago, the connection may be leaking. Look carefully for damp spots on the walls, floor, or ceiling. And not necessarily only near the pipes, you can find a wet spot even at a distance of a meter.

Window problems

Sometimes problems with high humidity appear after installing plastic windows. There may be several reasons:

• Wrong profile selected. In this case, moisture condenses on the glass and on the frame. For most of Russia, two-chamber profiles must be installed.
• Installation errors. In this case, a wet spot appears on the adjacent wall. When installing a window, a waterproofing gasket must be used, on top of which a layer of putty must be applied. Without this layer, the foam, which is blown into the cracks, absorbs moisture and transfers it to the adjacent wall.
  

• Violation of ventilation. Plastic windows are sealed, which is why there is no air flow and ventilation does not work. The problem is solved by installing a supply valve on a window or in a wall.
• Too wide window sill. It blocks the flow of warm air from the radiators, which should dry the windows.
• Over time, the seals on the window lose their properties, and moisture will get inside the frame. In summer, it will be imperceptible, and in winter, cold air, entering the apartment through places with broken seals, will lead to the formation of condensate or ice.

The most difficult case is an incorrectly selected profile. The only solution is to replace the window. Everything else can be fixed at a small cost.

Walls

To determine where the moisture is coming from, inspect the walls. If they are more damp at the bottom, and dry near the ceiling, then the problem is most likely in the foundation.

Moisture appears in certain sections of the wall, which means that cracks have appeared in it. It gets wet from above – the roof is leaking.

Cracks in the walls are usually clearly visible. If they are hidden under the skin, then in order not to remove it, it is better to use a thermal imager. In winter, it will show where the heat is leaking.

The solution is selected depending on the nature of the cracks. Large cracks can be completely repaired with cement mortar. If the wall gets wet over the entire area, then after sealing the cracks, apply liquid waterproofing. In prefabricated houses, connections between panels often leak. Eliminated by processing the joint with waterproofing material.

If the house is new, then interstitial moisture must be taken into account. The materials used in construction need time to dry completely. This is a common problem with apartments in new buildings. The same humidity may occur after repairs in the apartment. Over time, the moisture will disappear.

Foundation

The foundation is a conductor of moisture and, if waterproofed incorrectly, can conduct up to 50 liters of water from the ground into the house per day. Therefore, it is very important to make it qualitatively.

If there is no blind area around the house, and precipitation is quite frequent, then make it. To check, you can put roofing material, a thick plastic film or a waterproof membrane along one of the walls. It is necessary to fix the film so that precipitation is removed from the wall. If there is an improvement, then you have found a solution. To reduce the humidity in the house, you need to make a blind area.

If the reason is not in the blind area, then the problem is poor waterproofing or cracks in the foundation. Dig a trench around the house to expose the foundation. Seal gaps, apply/weld waterproofing and backfill. When the soil settles, make a blind area.

Another measure that will help divert water from the foundation is the installation of a drainage system.

Ground floor walls can draw moisture from the foundation. This happens when the separating waterproofing in the form of a layer of roofing felt or other waterproofing laid on the foundation before the walls are erected is broken. It is impossible to restore it, but you can reduce the access to moisture. For this, a deep penetration primer is used.

The same method will help with high humidity on the ground floor in a multi-storey or private house. If the air in the basement is damp, and the walls are dry, there is dampness on the ceiling, and there is water on the floor, treat the ceiling in the basement with waterproofing materials.

If on the ground floor it feels cold on the floor, it is better to make a floating screed. Lay down a layer of waterproofing materials. From above – insulation (EPS), then again waterproofing and fittings. Fill everything with concrete.

In the basement of a private house, in the absence of a floor, humidity can also be reduced. Pour a layer of sand, lay the film in two layers and press down on the sides with planks with a load. It is also important that there are air vents in the basement for ventilation.

roofing and attic

Wet walls and ceiling in the apartment is a signal of a violation of the tightness of the roof or the occurrence of condensate, which is not discharged outside the building, but is absorbed into the ceiling or walls. The leak is hard to find. Water can get in one place, but it will get wet in another.

It is necessary to inspect the roofing material in search of holes and cracks, and we seal everything that is found, even insignificant ones. We feel the thermal insulation, beams and filing. We find wet places, and nearby in the roof we look for leaks and close them up. If the humidity has not decreased, you will have to sort out the roof and eliminate violations.

If you live on the top floor of an apartment building, then the management company should monitor the health of the roof. You are unlikely to be able to cope with the current roof on your own and you need to write a complaint.

After eliminating the causes of moisture, the situation eventually normalizes. However, the process can be accelerated by using special devices. These are means that normalize the air, but the reasons for the increase in humidity are not eliminated.

How to drain air in room

Moisture absorbers are used to quickly reduce air humidity. They can be divided into two types: passive and active. In passive devices for collecting moisture, adsorbents are used in the form of granular substances and cartridges. Active devices require an electrical connection, are very complex and expensive.

Adsorption

A passive device is a plastic container or container with holes, inside of which there is a replaceable adsorbing element. The absorbed moisture from the air flows into the pan, from where it is poured out manually.

The package with the adsorbent must be opened and the device starts to work. The liquid in the pan does not appear immediately. The sorbent keeps moisture inside, and when it becomes too much, it flows into the pan.

Such devices are designed for a small area, so an apartment may require several pieces. The adsorbing element can be cartridges of various shapes or just a bag. The speed of the process depends on the speed of air flow in the rooms. To speed up the removal of moisture, you can forcibly drive air through the device. It could be a small fan like we see in computers, for example. However, they already belong to the electrical species.

electrical

You can quickly remove the humidity in the room with a household dehumidifier. This is an electrical appliance that condenses water, collecting it in a built-in container, or discharges it into the sewer. Models vary in price and complexity, they are efficient, but can consume a lot of electricity. In expensive models, you can adjust the humidity in a certain range and control it remotely.

There are several types of dehumidifiers that are electric:

1. Condensing dryers. Their work is based on the principle of moisture condensation. You can see something similar in the bathroom, when drops of water form on a cold faucet in a warm room.
   

2. Assimilation. They work on the principle of replacing indoor air with outside air. Used in industry.
3. Adsorption. To collect moisture, hygroscopic substances are used, as in passive devices, but to speed up the process, air is blown by a fan.

In addition to differences in the principle of operation, dehumidifiers differ in the type of construction. They can be portable (mobile) or stationary.

Homemade moisture absorbers from the air

You can make your own moisture absorber if you have silica gel granules. This substance can be found in shoe boxes in the form of a small bag. It can be poured into a plastic container or into bags made of fabric or non-woven material. Silica gel absorbs moisture from the air, but does not remove it into the container, but binds it inside each of the granules. So after a while it just stops working.

In addition to silica gel, other hygroscopic substances can be used, as well as folk remedies, such as salt.

A desiccant on the Peltier element will help get rid of dampness in the apartment. However, its device is more complicated, and to make it yourself, you need knowledge in electronics.

Some types of hygroscopic substances can be dried and reused, others cannot. Pay attention to the composition of silica gel – if there is a moisture level marker, then it may contain toxic substances and it is better not to take it for home use.

Сonclusion

To successfully combat humidity in an apartment, it is necessary not only to apply means to reduce it, but also to eliminate the very cause.