On Jan 29, 8:09 pm, "chrisc" wrote:
Please someone help!!!! My main problem is in my kitchen along the entire
ceiling where it meets the wall there is moisture when it is very cold out
only. It gets to where there are droplets on the ceiling. I also saw this in
2 other rooms , but very little spots. My second problem is my windows have
A LOT!! of water condensation on them to the point where it leaves water on
the sills and mold forms.I assume the 2 problems are related. I have a
humidity gauge that usually reads in the lower 50's. The lowest I've seen it
get is 48. And no I don't do anything out of the normal to be causing it .
Yes, I have a bathroom vent, no kitchen vent and two big dogs. But, I am
barely home and barely cook.

I had a few people come out and take a look. Home Depot looked up in my
crawl space and said I didn't need insulation (Have about 16-18") and that
it was a ventilation problem. I have plenty of soffit vents.They did all
these calculations and said that I had too much ridge vent and I should try
closing two of the 3 off. So, I plugged some tarps into the 2 to see what
would happen. You guessed it, nothing!. Another guy said he doesn't like the
baffles. They are garbage and he would install pink (panther?) baffles and
reblow the insulation to R38. He also said that where the moisture problem
is along the ceiling the previous person must have pulled the insulation
back to install the baffles and never hand rolled the inulation in which he
would do. He also said he would guarantee his work on paper. This made sense
for the kitchen ceiling problem, right?. A couple other guys just wanted to
add more insulation.

I wanted to check the problem out for myself to see if there was no
insulation where the problems spots are. But, my house is a ranch and the
roof is very low in the crawl space so how the hell do you get that close to
the wall where the roof meets to check? Also, I don't want to compress the
insulation thats already up there cause it was done last year.

The windows are new gas filled. But, I held a kleenex along them on a very
windy day and there are drafts. Could this be causing the moisture (bad
windows)?.

I will be more than happy to take any suggestions or answer any questions to
help me out. Thanks a lot.

The corner where the roof rafters meet the ceiling joists can be very
hard to insulate, and it is plausible that someone screwed it up. I
find that more plausible than too many ridge vents. Too much venting
is a new one on me. Diagnosing what is wrong is not easy. You either
go up in the attic and somehow get over there and have a look see, or
you find someone with a infrared camera to tell you if insulation is
missing. Personally, the guy who said he was going to add new rafter
chutes sounded the best to me.

The fact that you have condensation on your windows suggests that you
have a lot of moisture around. Do you have a damp basement or
crawlspace? It could be cheap windows too. What brand/type are they?