LESLIE: Janet in Kansas is on the line dealing with a condensation problem. Tell us what’s going on.
JANET: Well, my husband and I, we have steel-framed windows and we get a lot of condensation on those in the winter. And it runs down on the window sills and ruins the finish.
TOM: OK.
JANET: And I was wondering if there were any suggestions on how I could make that stop.
TOM: Well, the reason that you have condensation is because the windows aren’t well-insulated. So what happens is you have warm, moist air that’s inside the house and then you have cold air that’s outside the house and cold windows. And so as the warm air hits the windows, it condenses. Because the windows will chill the air; they’ll lower the air temperature and then it releases its moisture.
So, short of replacing the windows with better-quality windows, this is going to be a challenging problem. The only thing that you can do beyond that is take steps to reduce moisture inside of your house by making sure you have exhaust fans, making sure your drainage around the foundation is good and making sure that you have proper attic ventilation. So reducing moisture inside the house will help reduce the amount of condensation on the windows but the reason it’s happening is because the windows are not insulated.
JANET: OK. Thank you very much.
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