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My contractor and his subs are stumped. Just moved into an older house in SE where garage ceiling was wet and moldy. Removed sheet rockk and insulation to find 4 major steel beams supporting house above (thus ceiling is dropped about 18″).Sheet rockck was flush to beamsInsulationon between steel beams (and joists). Bottom of beams were rusty and pitted — source of condensation. House is AC’d, garage is not. Assume area above garage insulation (and the beams)stay cold and dry while area below is hot and damp.
My contractor is about to replace insulation ansheet rockock in same manner. He doesn’t know any other way to fix the problem.
Question: Is there a way to solve this problem? To the layman, it seems we need a method to keep the steel beams either entirely cold or hot. Would proper insulation technique and/or venting do the trick.
Thanks in advance for any help.
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Paint the beams.
*1. Can't you forget about covering the beams and leave the ceiling beams exposed and just fill in between them with insulation and drywall?2. You could sandblast them and spray the whole ceiling, beams and all with Polyruathane foam. Then install a drop ceiling.Gabe
*Sorry to be such a layman, but do you mean (1) sheet rock around the beams and keep them exposed (I suspect this is difficult given how crowded everything is in the ceiling)and paint the exposed beams or (2) paint them and then sheet rock over them.Thanks.
*Also, local inspector says we need firerated ceiling in garage (my contactor asked everyone how to solve this issue). Will the exposed beam solution meet code?Thanks again for everyone's help.
*SE? SE DC? across the potomac in Alex, I once helped fix up this old row house, real bad mold problem in the crawl space, the homeowner got a sensor the detect humidity, which triggered a fan.???Perhaps you could do the same, frame ceiling a little lower from the beams if you can spare the room, for airflow.Or, screw the rock directly to the underside of the joists, then wrap the beams.Maybe that will hold you till someone posts a better solution.
*If you have to rate the ceiling, then option number 2 is the way to go and use a rated drop ceiling.Gabe
*Thanks for your responses. SE is Georgia -- sorry about the confusion. Continuing questions: beams and joists are at the same height. In a dropped ceiling, where would the insulation go? Above or below the steel beams?Is this an uncommon situation?Thanks.
*Not that familiar with Georgia humidity problems and I thought that by your first posting that the beam was totally below the floor joist and not on the same plane.How about, cleaning the beam of rust, paint it with a rust inhibiting paint and frame it with 2x2s. Then install the insulation as before, including the framed 2x2s around the beam. Cover the whole ceiling with a plastic vapour barrier and then your drywall. Make sure that you overlap the plastic by a least a foot and seal around all electrical penetrations. Caulk the overlap with acoustical caulking and tape shut.If you do a good job sealing the vb the beam won't sweat and do damage.Gabe
*Gabe had a good idea. After painting beam, have sprayed with polyurethane foam. That should stop sweating. And then rock over for your fire rating.I've seen metal warehouse roofs that sweat. Foaming the ceilings stopped the problem.Good luck,John
*To meet fire code in Ga, you need to install 5/8" type X drywall on the ceiling. I suspect that 1/2" standard drywall was used in the first place.I also suspect that no vapor barrier or insulation of any kind was placed between the drywall and the bottom of the beam. It needs to be there. Ridgid foam will work for this. We installed some in a garage that had a steel beam running down the middle. We installed 1" solid foam sheets, 6 mil poly, then the drywall. Ceiling and attic are dry as a bone.Just a thought...James DuHamel
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My contractor and his subs are stumped. Just moved into an older house in SE where garage ceiling was wet and moldy. Removed sheet rockk and insulation to find 4 major steel beams supporting house above (thus ceiling is dropped about 18").Sheet rockck was flush to beamsInsulationon between steel beams (and joists). Bottom of beams were rusty and pitted -- source of condensation. House is AC'd, garage is not. Assume area above garage insulation (and the beams)stay cold and dry while area below is hot and damp.
My contractor is about to replace insulation ansheet rockock in same manner. He doesn't know any other way to fix the problem.
Question: Is there a way to solve this problem? To the layman, it seems we need a method to keep the steel beams either entirely cold or hot. Would proper insulation technique and/or venting do the trick.
Thanks in advance for any help.