What Are Some Common Problems Caused by High Humidity?

Higher humidity levels throughout your home are more than just uncomfortable to contend with. That humidity can put the overall structural integrity of your space at risk. 

Signs of Increasing Humidity in Your Home 

If you don’t have a hygrometer on hand in your home, and you haven’t noticed the air feeling cooler than usual, then you may not always notice when the humidity in your space starts to rise. Luckily, there are signs throughout your home that you can keep an eye out for that may indicate this type of change. These signs can include: 

• Damp walls 
• Sagging floors 
• Bowing walls 

• Rusting floor and rim joists 
• Unusual amounts of standing water 
• Ice 
• Warping door and window frames 
• Mold 

• Fogging windows 
• Unpleasant smells 

If the humidity in your home is on the rise, you’re likely contending with some manner of structural defect in your crawl space, basement, or foundation. Even with all the aforementioned signs or some combination thereof present, you may not be able to tell right away what kind of problem it is you’re facing. With that in mind, be sure to reach out to the professionals in your area if you start to notice any of the aforementioned conditions within your home. Together, you can walk through your space and determine what it is that has put your home’s humidity levels—and structural integrity—into jeopardy. 

Common Problems to See in a High-Humidity Home 

Symptoms of water damage aside, a home that has to contend with high levels of humidity on a regular basis is likely to see a significant amount of structural damage over the years, especially if the homeowner in question doesn’t attend to the problem of that humidity’s buildup. Homes with higher degrees of humidity are more likely to suffer from: 

• Foundation cracks and leaks 
• Wall cracks and leaks in the basement or crawl space 
• Pipe leaks 
• Foundation sinkage or settling 

All the above conditions pose a serious threat to the overall stability of your home. Not only that, but they can decrease the overall value of your home if they’re not treated within a reasonable amount of time. If you try to sell a home suffering from any of the aforementioned conditions in addition to untreated and unusually high levels of humidity, then you risk losing up to 30 percent of your home’s value in its resale.