Rainbows, babbling brooks, long hot baths … there’s no denying the glories of water – but it does have a dark side. No, we’re not talking about floods, tsunamis or the sudden downpour that catches you without an umbrella. We’re talking about a stealthy, insidious threat to the health of your family and your home: moisture in the air that creeps unnoticed into the walls of your home.
Moisture’s mischief – it’s not harmless
In hot humid summers, moisture migrates into your walls from the outside. In cold dry winters, moisture generated by everyday family activities – cooking, laundry, bathing, and such – seeps in from the inside. (Bet you didn’t know that the average family of four generates two to three gallons of water vapor every day!)
Once inside your wall cavities, that moisture will condense on every surface, creating a breeding ground for mold and mildew. Once it gets started, that nastiness will grow and spread. Eventually its spores can make their way out of your walls, into your living space and into the air your family breathes every day. Asthma and allergic reactions, including eye irritation, runny noses, coughs and other respiratory symptoms, can soon follow.
If you wonder, even for a minute, whether enough moisture can get into your wall to cause real problems, just Google “mold inside wall cavity” and look at the images that come up. I dare you.
And it’s not just the health of your family you need to worry about. The health of your home is at stake as well. Moisture is a catalyst for wood rot, which can eat away at your home’s structure and potentially lead to some very costly damage.
Moisture in your home is unavoidable – that’s the bad news. The good news is that thanks to modern science, it is manageable.
