Any garage owner once encounters an unpleasant phenomenon: humidity in the garage, which leads to condensation in the cold season. To defeat this phenomenon is not easy, but necessary, because water destroys the walls, leads to rusting of the car body, contributes to the development of mold. We will deal with ways to combat humidity and find out what experienced motorists advise.
Where does the damp come from?
First of all, you need to find out the reason for the dampness in the garage. Without knowing the reasons, it is impossible to eliminate it.
Most often, condensation occurs for two reasons:
- During the construction of the garage did not take care of waterproofing. It is possible that they did not do it at all or did it wrong.
- Due to ventilation problems, the air in the garage is not updated. And then it doesn’t matter where the water came from: it was brought on a wet car body or leaked from the outside through holes in the waterproofing - there is nowhere to go for water vapor.
To successfully deal with humidity, they are improving in both directions. Without a systematic approach, this problem cannot be dealt with.
Tip number 1
Before building a garage, read the recommendations outlined in the “Garage Equipment Requirements”. This document will help to organize the ventilation system during construction.
What is wrong with condensate and is it necessary to deal with it?
When it comes to the need to remove excess moisture from the air in the garage, some motorists do not even understand why this is necessary. But condensation is dangerous for many reasons:
- In a humid atmosphere, chemical interactions occur between fuels and lubricants and other automotive chemicals. The products of such reactions are much more toxic than the starting materials. They can trigger poisoning.
- The water film deposited on the walls of the garage becomes a favorable environment for mold and bacteria. These organisms are undesirable guests in any visit, as their spores and waste products cause severe pulmonary diseases.
- Dampness leads to rapid corrosion destruction of metals (from the car body to the tools stored in the garage and the supporting structures of the building).
- Moisture accumulated in concrete pores expands upon freezing. This causes microcracks in the material, gradually expanding with each new freezing cycle.
Council number 2
Carefully check the contacts of electrical appliances if there is excessive humidity in the garage. Oxidation and corrosion processes are frequent precursors to short circuits and fires.
How to provide ventilation?
Good ventilation can significantly reduce humidity in the room. Its task is to ensure that excessively humidified air enters the street and replaces the removed air with drier air from the street. To do this, organize points through which the inflow and exit of air masses is carried out. This is done in two ways: on the basis of the proper organization of convection and using exhaust fans.
Natural ventilation: how to organize it?
For the organization of natural ventilation, knowledge from the school course of physics is used: the air, heating up, tends to up. The garage is warmer than the street, which means that air will come out through openings in the ceiling or top of the wall. And the inlets are located on the floor, on the opposite side of the outlet. Pieces of a pipe or duct made of polymer materials are introduced into the holes.
Council number 3
So that insects and rodents do not enter the garage through the ventilation openings, they are tightened with a grill or fine mesh. Just do not forget from time to time to clean dust and dirt from the grill.
A pipe through which air enters the garage is installed at a height of 0.2 m from the ground. If you place it lower, moisture evaporating from the soil will fall into the garage, and if done too high, a large unventilated area will form in the garage. The exhaust pipe is mounted under the slope of the roof so that rain or snow does not get into it. If the pipe is brought out through the roof, its slice must be closed with a fungus to prevent drops and snowflakes from getting inside.
We install a forced ventilation system
Great efficiency of the ventilation system is observed when the exhaust and supply pipes are equipped with fans. Enough even low-power systems, powered by an electrical network.
To reduce the cost of electricity, two options are used:
- The fan runs continuously, but the rotation speed of the blades (and hence the power consumption) is set to a minimum.
- The fan turns on for a short time and operates at high power. The owner of the garage can turn on the system (if he visits him regularly) or a control circuit. Such circuits are equipped with timers or humidity sensors.
Tip number 4
It is better to put the fan on the exhaust pipe. This will allow the system to work with less effort, which means it will provide better results with less electricity.
There are also combined versions of ventilation systems that combine both of these principles.
Garage waterproofing
Waterproofing is an important step in draining the atmosphere of a garage. It is necessary to approach it after carefully considering all the nuances. A typical mistake is to ignore ventilation ducts when trying to seal a garage. If during the creation of waterproofing to block the path of air flow, the garage will turn into a sealed container, which does not even leave the water that was brought on wheels and boots.
To isolate the garage from groundwater, a concrete screed is made on the earthen floor. The walls are coated with mastic based on bitumen to a height of 0.3-0.4 m. Such measures will not allow moisture from groundwater or precipitation to enter the garage.
Tip number 5
Before starting work, find out how deep the groundwater lies in your area (you can get this information from the geodetic service). If they are close to the surface, lay a layer of waterproofing polymer film before laying the screed and covering the walls.
An additional waterproofing of the floor is provided by a bulk polymer composition. But this is a relatively expensive method that is used in complex cases.
Professional Tips
In the arsenal of experienced garage owners, there are many popular ways to drain the atmosphere. For this, slaked lime, silica gel, rock salt and other hygroscopic substances are used. Warming the room with a heat gun or blowtorch also gives positive results. But these methods, although they do not require much effort, give only a temporary effect and are ineffective outside the systemic struggle against dampness.