Just had a heart attack.........

[1958 F.W.D.]

Well as I am sure many of you know the weather here the last week and a few days was brutally cold and close to no humidity. What you may not know is that yesterday and today we had a very dramatic warm-up, the high today was 57 and a little more than 2 inches of rain, so the air was pretty damp.

I went out to the garage earlier tonight to get a screw driver, and the first thing I notice when I flick on the lights is the windows of the FWD are completely fogged up with condensation. So is all of the sheet metal, and anything else metal in the garage including my three billion dollars worth of tool boxes.....And the concrete floor, and the metal storage lockers I have out there.....Seems the sudden warm up with the humidity caused everything inside the garage that was ice cold to form condensation. Shit.

I have the overhead door cracked an inch and two box fans running out there now to circulate the air. Supposed to be sunny and 42 degrees tomorrow so I plan on opening the garage door wide open and letting it really air out well.

[slpwlker]

Dehumidifiers work wonders. open the doors and let it breathe.

[hicrop10]

I had the same problem Randy,in my shed where I have the cab from the B87.I have a propane heater in there and I hang a electric fan from the ceiling to force the hot air down.I was able to use spray bombs when it was in the single digets.I will try opening the door on Sunday.Won't be able to do much just came home from the hospital this morning,had my 3rd and final stomach surgery.Can't lift any thing more then 5lbs and can't drive for a week.

[Mike]

I know that is a bummer. I keep a fan in my basement going 24/7 and 365. I have been doing this for probably 8 years now at this house. The Mack garage gets no help. I have to remember that the old Mack sat out in the elements for many years before it got to stay inside.

mike

[1MACK1]

Just hard to imagine what you blokes go thru worst we get here is minus 1 in mid winter and no snow

[1958 F.W.D.]

Just hard to imagine what you blokes go thru worst we get here is minus 1 in mid winter and no snow

I have Mates in Mount Barker, SA and over in Melbourne......When I told them it hit -17c last week they about had a fit....!!!

[1MACK1]

I wouldn't mind it a bit cooler next winter over here we sell firewood in the winter months and last year we had a hot winter not good for sales

[rustydog]

Well as I am sure many of you know the weather here the last week and a few days was brutally cold and close to no humidity. What you may not know is that yesterday and today we had a very dramatic warm-up, the high today was 57 and a little more than 2 inches of rain, so the air was pretty damp.

I went out to the garage earlier tonight to get a screw driver, and the first thing I notice when I flick on the lights is the windows of the FWD are completely fogged up with condensation. So is all of the sheet metal, and anything else metal in the garage including my three billion dollars worth of tool boxes.....And the concrete floor, and the metal storage lockers I have out there.....Seems the sudden warm up with the humidity caused everything inside the garage that was ice cold to form condensation. Shit.

I have the overhead door cracked an inch and two box fans running out there now to circulate the air. Supposed to be sunny and 42 degrees tomorrow so I plan on opening the garage door wide open and letting it really air out well.

SAME THING HERE!!

[sbrem]

Same thing happened in my garage

[farmer52]

Just a suggestion....don't let your garage get below 40 deg F. Do whatever is necessary to keep it above 40.

My garage is connected to the house (1/2 full of my stuff and an open bay for the wife's vehicle). The garage is insulated so most of the time it is warmer than the outside temperature (usually 50 degrees during the winter just from the heat of the vehicle even with outside temps in the 20s and 30s). But when the mercury dips low (under 20), I crack open the door to the house and let some of the warm air heat the garage. Most winters I do not need to open the house door but the past few weeks it was open most of the time. Another suggestion, don't open the garage door until the vehicle is loaded and you are ready to start the vehicle and close it as soon as you exit the garage. As you enter the garage, turn off the vehicle, and close the garage door. Keep the time the garage door is open to a minimum.

[1958 F.W.D.]

Ken the garage is detached.

Insulation in the walls, but not the roof or ceiling. There is an old oil-fired hot air furnace out there that the previous owner installed that worked when I first moved in 8 years ago, but broke down year two or three. Besides when it does run, it's pretty thirsty.

This has never happened before- the gradual cool down to freezing temps and then an all of a sudden overnight rise to 50 degrees with an accompanying onslaught of humidity........Usually we get the gradual cool-down and a gradual raise in temp, so this has never been an issue before. I dont worry about the cold temps out there. If I need to go out there and work I have a propane heater I light up a half-hour ahead of time; by the time I wanna start work it's fairly tolerable out there.

I went out last night and put the box fan on high, and this morning I went out around 7:00 and much of the condensation was gone, I opened the door 2 feet and let the fan run. Hopefully that will dry it up out there. I'm banking that this was an isolated event and wont be a regular occurrence.

[Mike]

In my detached garage where I keep the Mack I use a propane tank to keep it toasty. I need to buy a furnace for the ceiling in a back corner away from the truck but have had to take things in steps. Insulation and paneling was next after the garage went up. Have fans out there but do not run them while cold. Not sure it would be a good idea to have a pilot light on with possible spray painting tho I don't spray paint much. I do have a pullout fan in the back of the garage near the ceiling. This needs covered during the winter but don't. Do I hear suggestions out there?

mike

[gearhead204]

old ceiling fans do wonders too since heat rises and gathers in the top of the air space any thing to push it back down and mix the air works great. another thing is if you have a big enough power supply a old electric furnace turned upside down mounted in the ceiling or just in the upper 1/3 of the building works good also

[Vladislav]

I used to observe such an effect in the cold shed, temperature here jumps over the freezing point many times during the winter.

The last time it was -18 Celsias for a week and than came up to some plus. I saw all the heavy chassis parts i.e. hubs, springs and carriers were covered with ice cristalls wich later converted into little drops of water.

The way to prevent it is to use inside heating or to insulate a room from coming wet air from outside.

[farmer52]

Ken the garage is detached.

Insulation in the walls, but not the roof or ceiling.

I would insulate the ceiling and invest in an electric space heater with blower and mount it on the wall.

[thomastractorsvc]

FWD if the garage is stick built put some OSB on the roof and use cellulose insulation cheap and effective, than you wont have the dramatic temp changes

[Freightrain]

I have heat in my garage(detached) and keep it 40* minimum. My bad time is spring/fall and the moisture is crazy. I put a ventilation fan in the wall with a humidity control on it. Helped A LOT!! I tape it closed for the winter, but that thing will run 24/7 come march/april. First summer here(10 yrs ago) everything rusted to pieces til I got the fan put in.

[rsb502]

My walkout basement garage got cold enough not one but two pipes froze and then burst, had about 3 inches of water in the basement before someone noticed, I was in NC so the wood stove wasn't running like it is when im here and its cold out. Apparently the water running out the garage doors froze and created a dam and that's how it got to 3" of water in a 22'x42' space, needless to say ive been drying and cleaning since Friday when I got home. I try to keep my wood stove and a fan down there going to keep it about 40-50 degrees but with me out of town it was kinda hard to do, I am trying to get some wood toegether now for the next couple months and guess what, its been so wet I have almost no dry wood. I guess Ill have to prepare a little earlier next year, I already used up almost the same amount of wood I used all last winter, I wasn't ready for it to get this cold this fast and stay there, we don't normally do that in TN.

[Vladislav]

My walkout basement garage got cold enough not one but two pipes froze and then burst, had about 3 inches of water in the basement before someone noticed, I was in NC so the wood stove wasn't running like it is when im here and its cold out. Apparently the water running out the garage doors froze and created a dam and that's how it got to 3" of water in a 22'x42' space, needless to say ive been drying and cleaning since Friday when I got home. I try to keep my wood stove and a fan down there going to keep it about 40-50 degrees but with me out of town it was kinda hard to do, I am trying to get some wood toegether now for the next couple months and guess what, its been so wet I have almost no dry wood. I guess Ill have to prepare a little earlier next year, I already used up almost the same amount of wood I used all last winter, I wasn't ready for it to get this cold this fast and stay there, we don't normally do that in TN.

Good luck on drying all that up.

[fxfymn]

I feel your pain Randy. Even in a fully conditioned basement I have problems with condensation rusting my woodworking machines.

As for heating a building; If you can afford it I highly recommend the Mitsubishi split systems. I installed one in my 36x36 garagemahal this past summer. I have kept it at 60 all winter and so far the most it has cost me is $25.00 for a month's electricity. Very efficient and provides A/C as well.

[1958 F.W.D.]

No money in the budget for a new heating system. I **might** look into seeing if a buddy could fiddle with the existing oil-fired hot air furnace, and would consider lighting that off during periods of very cold weather. However money is tight. This was an isolated event- how often do we go from zero degree weather with no humidity to 50 degrees with 99% humidity? It just does not happen every day. Been here for 9 years now and it never happened.

[hatcity]

"been here 9 years and it never happened"

That's what the old farmer said when the plow horse up and died in the field

[1958 F.W.D.]

"been here 9 years and it never happened"

That's what the old farmer said when the plow horse up and died in the field

Shoulda bought a Mack. Or better yet an F.W.D. with a Mack engine.

[Gmerrill0516]

Some sort of heat will do the trick. A small wood stove can do the trick but the chimeny you need to be legal can be a fortune. I'd tinker up the existing furnace and put it on for such occasions and leave it off the rest of the time. A few 500 watt halogen work lights could be enough to drive off the moisture. Just keep them away from anything that can burn. It is always better to store garage stuff at 40 degrees or so but it can get expensive to keep a space big enough for a truck to sit in warm...it's an expensive hobby in some ways.