Relative Humidity and Mold on the Florence Oregon Coast

I went to a Home Inspection seminar recently conducted by a licensed home inspector who has 30,000 home inspections under his belt. I learned some great facts that affect homes on the Florence Oregon coast. 1. If wood has an 18-20% moisture content, you get rot. 2. You can rent a machine at Florence Heating that pumps hot air into a space to dry it out. 3. There is a 19 gallon moisture loss in a 1,000 square foot area of exposed soil in 24 hours. 4. A good website to look at is www.advancedenergy.org. Click on "buildings," then "Knowledge Library," then "Crawl Spaces." Their research shows that keeping crawl space vents closed keeps the space drier and therefore less likely to have mold/moisture problems. Great information throughout this site, so tootle around to learn lots of good "stuff." 5. There were only 8 days in the first half of 2009 when the relative humidity in the Florence area did not exceed 80% at some point during the day. There were only 7 days when the dew point i.e. condensation, was not achieved at some point during the day. Moisture condensation can lead to mold, rot and insect infestation. Florence is humid. So don't vent your crawl space. Learn the latest on how to keep your crawl space dry and how to build a home so that the crawl space is sealed properly and kept dry to begin with. Need more information? You can contact Charlie Rouse directly 503-708-3211 or email him at charlierouse@comcast.net