I have a vacant building I am prepping to move in & rehab, 5-unit multi family. There are a couple things I was hoping to get input on.
The first is, there is condensation in the basement on all piping, wiring, and kraft-backs of insulation stuffed in the floor joists (poor installation) (no utilities turned on). It has been relatively warm here with lots of rain. Clay floor in basement. I don’t understand the condensation, the shell of the house is warm and it seems like cool moist basement air could not be condensing on a warmer surface? It’s perplexing. And I don’t know the solution.
Second, the building had electric baseboard heat and I want to convert it to heat pumps or some such (electric only, no gas service) but a forced air system. There is a dead cavity between 1st floor drop ceilings and 2nd floor, good attic over 2nd floor, and basement access to 1st floor for running ductwork. However, heat pumps in the dead space will be relatively inaccessible. Any ideas outside of furnace-type heat pump units with outdoor condensers or through-the wall PTAC units?
Last, one of the units had pretty good fire damage. It was plaster-lath with a 1/2″ sheet of rock over it, blackened the rock. The fire was hot enough to melt the toggles on the breakers in the circuit box. Would you yank all of the wiring out, or trust it – anyway to test it? I can see it visually, the romex looks fine, but don’t know if the heat would cause problems not visually identifiable.
remodeler
Replies
Get a humidity gauge.
I suspect that you have saturated air in the basement and it is being pumped full of moisture from the ground.
For HVAC look at split, ductless heat pumps. They have an outside compressor that opperate one or several small fan and evaporator units that mount on the wall or ceiling. Sorta a hybred between central air and window unit. A google will get you lots of information.