Water Damage And Condensation

bigblue

Hello,

I Own a disaster mitigation company in Vermont. I am currently working on drying out a house that had MAJOR water damage. 14 total pipe breaks and the water ran for at least a week. We have demo'd all of the detectable wet materials (sheerock, wood floor etc.) I have been involved in the water damage restoration business for many years but in the severity of this particlular house I have discovered a new dillema. Like I said, we have removed all wet materials in the house--- baseboard trim, doors, kitchen cabinets, vanities, sheetrock, wood floor. The issue I am having with this house is the interface between the fiberglass batt insulation and the house sheathing. We removed all the insulation on the outside walls of the home where we had demo'd sheetrock including all of the rim joist/box sill insulation. In the most severely damage areas where the water rained down the insulation was soaked and it was a no brainer to remove and replace. As we move further away from the direct area of the pipe breaks, most of the batt insulation was completely dry, except the interface between sheating and insulation. And actually, the insulation was frozen to the sheathing. We removed all of this insulation, introduced extreme heat and massive airflow and dryed all of the structural members, then replaced the insulation. My first question is why was that interface the only area that had moisture? Is it because as the house dryed out the wet heavy air escaped and condensed on the cold sheathing and then froze? I don't think it was from the direct migration of the pipe break water, otherwise the whole batt would be wet. My second question is, is this something that happens in any home? I certainly wouldn't think so. Any thoughts or comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

neolitic

That is what happens when there is
a failure in the vapor barrier, or a
double vapor barrier, and the exterior
one performed better than the interior one.
It sounds like this one was severely
tested.

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(Sorry....it seems there really are dumb questions)

WarnerConstInc.

I got one doing the same thing. Except this house is really old and there was no such thing as a vapor barrier back in 1850, or indoor plumbing. Boy oh boy does a busted pipe make a mess!!