Despite advice to the contrary, our daughter is buying a small wooden shed to use as tempoary storage for garments - they'll be in there for no longer than a week, she's a tailor/seamstress. We say the things will get damp, she says "not in a week". Any advice on improving the conditions inside the shed? It's going to be about 8'x6' mounted on wooden bearers on a sheet of dpc material.
Thanks, I did think to look for a greenhouse heater thingie and also considered a dehumiifer for overnight. Would it be worth stapling up any sort of insulation?
If this is the typical small wooden shed then the framing will be not much more than 25mm square so the insulation possibilities without extending the framing will be somewhat limited.
One of the things that I would consider is lining it with 9mm OSB - walls, door, ceiling and floor. It was pointed out to me recently that there is so much glue in OSB that it it is an effective moisture barrier. Use 12mm and then it can be screwed into and things can be hung from it.
Rob
line it with felt, then add your dehumidifier. Otherwise you're dehumidifying the great outdoors.
NT
If these garments were stored in slightly damp conditions for a week, what would be the result? Is that long enough for mould to start growing? Garments don't mind damp per se, or we wouldn't use steam irons!
They'll get damp in 7 hours let alone 7 days... Of course on a bright sunny day it'll dry out if there is enough ventilation but come winter, cold, rain and snow it'll be effectively sodden.
Insulate, line and provide some form of heating. Heating not from a paraffin greenhouse heater as that will produce lot's of moisture and smelly fumes. Gas won't be as smelly but still produce moisture. Electrickery is your best bet, easy to control and clean. You won't need much with decent insulation.
I would think that if the garmets are stored inside "dry cleaning" bags they'd be fine for that length of time. Provided they aren't squashed together, with too many hung on each rail. I'd be more concerned about wildlife: moths/larvae eating the fabric, insects, mice etc. Sounds like some nice warm nesting locations for the cold winter months. (If that doesn't freak her out enough for an immediate change of plans then nothing will :-) )
Bags! A stroke of genuis, shirely? Honest, we've tried all arguments, but a shed it's going to be.
A greenhouse heater will make things worse, by increasing the temperature of the air you increase its ability to hold water vapour. That vapour will come from the wood if from nowhere else, because even kiln dried timber still has a substantial water content and storage and treatment of the shed after the wod was dried will introduce more. When the temperature drops some of the moisture in the air will condense.
Insulation delays the inevitable, but does not completely abate rises and falls in temperature nor will it dry out the wood for you. Ventilation will help but an uninhabited shed is still going to be damp.
After a few months of use with pelnty of ventilation the shed may well become dry, but my experience with sheds is that clothing (fabric of any kind) develops mildew within a remarkably short time.
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Harry saying something like:
Tell her to bag everything up in polythene as she puts it in. Damp-sealing a wooden shed properly will be a relatively expensive task.
A plastic shed would be more vapour and insect proof.
There are plastic bags that youa ttach a vacuum cleaner to and empty of air
[g]
And smells musty, even if there's nothing visible.
it will be no worse and no better than being outside hanging on a line. (except they wont get rained on)
And indeed no worse and no better than being inside hanging in a cupboard that is well ventilated.
You only get drier inside a house, in winter, when its heated.
The only danger I can see is if the temp drops rapidly at night and you get condensation
Shove a load of bricks in there. thermal mass wil keep it a bit warmer ayt mnight.
Yes, that too, about as quickly as washing develops a musty smell if it is not throughly dried before packing away - a matter of a couple of days.
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Cover the roof at least (inside) with polystyrene tiles or sheet to inhibit condensation and fit good air vents near floor level and at the eaves.
Unless the weather is exceptionally wet or humid garments hanging with good air circulation will be unlikely to suffer in a few days.
Cic.
Just plenty ventilation. The only choice.
Drive past any uses car sale and you will see all the hatch backs have the rear doors open.
Any form of heating, or de humidifying might taint the clothes with local odours. eg sheds use treated wood. Think about a bride walking down the aisle smelling of Cuprinol :-(
Dave
If they're clients' garments she should check her business insurance covers her for storage in a shed.
Owain
insulation without heating makes almost no difference. At best it reduces nightime condensation possibilities, so dew outside doesn't mean dew inside.
In nay case dew will form on the worst insulated places - typically windows - and run down them. It wont form on the clothing.
I've had boxes of clothes and curtains in the garage for years. No mould.
keep em off the floor and away from the walls (concrete/masonry) and they do very well.
I've got an unheated attic. Stuff doesn't rot their either. That's just a shed on top of a house.
Really, this whole thread is a straw man. By and large all you have to do to keep stuff is get it out of the rain and off the damp ground. And away from mice. who will make nests in it.
would you leave clothes for a week in the boot of an unheated and undriven car?
Would you store clothes in an unheated attic for a year?
Of course you would.
shed is no bloody different.
Is your shed rotting from mould inside it after 5 years? Nope.
Is grain stored in air conditioned dehumidified stores? Nope. Once its moisture content is down, it stores fine, in unheated structures. No rot.
Rot happens when stiff is WET, not when its in moist air. A shed in Natal, yes, clothes rot. Walls get covered in mould. They rot in the bloody house. Everything rots in Natal. We simply don't have 100% humidity and 30C temperatures for days on end here. They do. Even when its 27C and sultry here, its NOTHING compared with places where stiff rots unless you take special proprtions. Humidity here is generally about 50%. In natal it peaks at about 85%.
Today humidity on a sultry July afternoon is less than 50% in the SE, and up to 60, and even 70% 'ooop north' and in the west.
In an uninsulated shed. solar gain will drop that a LOT. humidity goes down as temps go up. So every day te clothes will get bone dry.
And that's enough to halt any mould. Mould requires PERSISTENT damp. Like putting a WET tent away inside a plastic bag. Or being permanently below ground level. Or being in a persistently hot humid climate. Ours is not.
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