Drying house at end of extension build

ravendude

Hello,
I'm wondering if there are specific things to test for, or ways to test that a house is dry enough after a construction build for fitting of skirts, architrave etc.

Are there any techniques to speed up drying? Builder has fired up a few small heaters, which you can barely feel and even this tiny bit of warmth is causing condensation everywhere, - on wardrobes, furniture, some internal concrete walls, etc. - actually the air-tightness tape seems a particular draw for condensation. The amount of internal condensation is quite surprising actually.

One good thing is the new triple glazed windows are showing little or no condensation. House has had a lot of attention re. airtighting so not sure where the moisture will all go.

House has skimming done to most of it bar one area that needs more drying, so lots of moisture from that too.

As much as I'm keen to push this along and get things done, I'm pretty pessimistic that we could be looking at some time off to dry out, especially with all the wet, cold, dull weather at the moment.

I'm wondering how one decides, - OK, now its dry enough for doing skirts, architraves etc.?
I have a moisture meter, - but not sure what to test or what the levels should be?
Should it basically just be the case that heating is going for a week or some rule of thumb before doing skirts etc.?
Thanks!

Lumen

Ventilate!

listermint

dehumidifier ?

Calahonda52

the heaters on their own are only making the problem worse in a sealed house.
you need a dehumidifier or 2 , set low, if you are aggressive with it you will dry out the timbers and they will warp and crack.
The heaters will complement the dehumidifiers as warm air will retain more moisture making it easier for the dehumidifiers to work well
http://www.dpcalc.org/

ravendude

Calahonda52 wrote: »

the heaters on their own are only making the problem worse in a sealed house.
you need a dehumidifier or 2 , set low, if you are aggressive with it you will dry out the timbers and they will warp and crack.
The heaters will complement the dehumidifiers as warm air will retain more moisture making it easier for the dehumidifiers to work well
http://www.dpcalc.org/

Builder had dehumidifier going force while but is reluctant to run now that some walls are skimmed due to flexing of studs as you say. Its drying out a but now we got a couple of days where you could half see the sun

Calahonda52

It it is a small;l one and run low then it wont do harm, you can tell by the amount of water that gets taken out