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Attic moisture and condensation

Chris Felker | Posted in General Questions on

Hi,
I live in Ontario Canada. I have a 2 story sided house and soffit vents and roof vents. Last year I got a hot tub and it is in my yard located on the north side of my home that does not get a lot of sun. The tub is located about 10 feet away from the home. I do not have any attic moisture issues at the moment but want to avoid. My question is can the steam from the hot tub in the winter work it way into the attic through the soffit and cause issues? Or at that point in time the steam and air is already cold enough that it would not cause issues the same way home heat loss would?

The lid is only opened around 3 hours a week. Any one I have asked has never heard of any problems. Perhaps I am over thinking this.

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Replies

  1. Expert Member
    Dana Dorsett | | #1

    You're definitely overthinking this.

    The moisture would be far more likely to condense on the exposed siding and exterior of the soffits on the outdoors rather than on the interior material, and the "exposure" period is less than 2% of the total time, with 98% of the winter hours being drying-time even for what miniscule amount of micro-droplet water that might magically find it's way inside the attic.

    In reality unless it's visible micro-droplet "steam" going up the soffits, the dew point of the air going into the soffit vent is guaranteed to be lower than the temperature of the attic wood.

  2. GBA Editor
    Martin Holladay | | #2

    Chris,
    I agree with Dana. The water vapor from your hot tub isn't going to hurt your house or change conditions in your attic. Time to worry about something else.

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