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Old 04-06-11, 07:35 PM   #9
MN Renovator
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I think the reason that you are finding moisture damage in the bathroom is that many people probably don't know that they are supposed to run the fan to draw that moisture out of the bathroom. I grew up in a house where we never used the fan when taking showers until a few tiny mildew spots started showing up on the ceiling above the shower. We figured out that we needed to use the fans right away and a quick shot of bleach shower cleaner got rid of it and it never came back. Many houses probably have a fan with too low of CFM to adequately ventilate the moisture but it depends on the size and design of the bathroom too. I've also noticed some frost on the windows on extremely cold days when I took a long shower and the steam would pour out of the shower area when I opened the curtain and got out, it would roll out of the door and fog the little 'porthole windows' and frost the bottom half. Those little things are a good indicator of when there is too much moisture, they would be the first and only windows to frost up if there was too much moisture, whether or not it was from the shower.

The house I grew up in had enough cooking with boiling water, showers, cooking with the oven, etc. to where there was always a thick layer of frost and ice at the bottom of the double pane windows. I never thought about it much, the house I'm living in now doesn't have that problem except for the two little windows high mounted porthole windows. I think keeping the house at a lower temperature in the window helps too because of the dew point swing.
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