Major Humidity in Bathroom

Experienced contractors, those who have been in business for a long time (beginners just want and need jobs) learn to read between the lines with potential customers and find out what a homeowner needs not what they think they need or want. To do that means one has to understand the habits of a family and how they use their home (i go through this with doors and locks all the time). sometimes., once you understand them and their situation, you actually steer them away from a project because it might not solve an issue the way they think it will or it might create unforesern issues or is not justified by the expense. It is a contractor’s responsibility to point unforeseen issues out. It takes time, but functioning this way, trying to understand a customer and put their needs first over all else is how many contractors in years past build solid,reputable companies and became trusted members of a community.

The issue here is this: they “rarely even use the bathroom” (op’s words). In my opinion, if they don’t use that bathroom for daily showers, the issue is such that they will have to leave that exhaust fan on for more than just a few minutes each day as one would do with a shower. The issue with that is really two fold: it is a bathroom they don’t use and probably do not want to worry about and that means not monitoring and not turning on a fan (in this situation, that bathroom is probably on a floor they do not spend a lot of time on); if the problem is created by a larger humidity issue in the home, they will have to leave that exhaust running for such an amount of time that in the winter, when issues like this usually occur, they will suck the warm air out of the house; it costs a lot of money to run exhaust fans for any length of time due to the loss of heat.

The house may have a bit of humidity in it. I am not suggesting excessive because our house has too little humidity – both in the winter with the heat on and summer with the ac on (ours drops to 35% which is uncomfortable). If op really wants to get into this, they can get a temperature station with humidity gauge on it. 50% is perfect for people and artwork and wood furniture. If that humidity is higher than say 60%, they might have have another issue.

running natural gas fired appliances kicks the humidity up in a house. Perhaps a lot of cooking can do that but so can an unvented gas heater.

Op is really trying to understand why this is happening. This condensation was quite common before people had exhaust fans and unless there is some other issue in the house leading to humidity, it might just be left alone. Maybe when repainting the bathroom, use a paint that is made for this environment.

Steve
Brownstonehomeinspection.com

Does the bathroom have an exhaust fan? If so, a simple improvement you can make is to replace the fan switch with one that also automatically cycles on so many minutes per hour. Of course this will only address your symptom of stagnate air temperature instead of solving the origin problem that seems to be insulation related but it is a very minimally invasive and cheap upfront expense versus alternative solutions

So i just checked my bathroom. For whatever reason, there is no condensation in there at all. I know that once the shower is turned on, some will form. But i looked at the walls and ceiling. The evidence of condensation is up high and that reminded me that we have at times we have had drips of water hanging on the ceiling. I see some discoloration. It does not bother me because i know it is condensation, but if i were worried, when i repaint, i would use a paint designed to withstand this a little better.

I know for a fact there is no insulation sitting above my cieling and there in lies the problem. The cavity above the cieling is cold, cooling the walls, and allowing water to settles. It the same thing that happens when we sip a cold glass of ice tea (or a long island ice tea) on a hot & humid summer’s day.

Steve
Www.brownstonehomeinspection.com

Whoever is cutting holes in the walls should not be. That water is condensation coming from the air. You mention all 4 walls which is odd. In the winter we sometimes see it on our exposed wall. Since the water appears to be running down the wall from up above, my guess is the top of the wall is cold because the ceiling under the roof is not insulated and the condensation is settling near the top and running down.

How cold are the walls? How cold are they up top? Are the colder than the air? If i was checking this. I would use an infrared thermoter to check the surface temperature and if the walls are much colder up top, i would suspect it is the lack of insulation above.

This happens a lot by the way. If this is not occuring after a shower but is ever present, lowering the temp of the bathroom could help or the addition of a dehumidifier. In my own house we run into this in the fall after the ac is off and just when we turn the heat on. Aft er running the heat here for a month or so, the house gets so dry it stops and we have to run vaporizers.

Steve
Www.brownstonehomeinspection.com