A rainstorm in Seattle showed me why I needed a proper vapor barrier

Honestly, I was finishing the drywall in my 12x16 studio when a heavy rain hit for three days straight. I started to see dark spots forming on the new wall near the base. My buddy who builds houses came over, poked the drywall, and said, 'You skipped the 6 mil poly, didn't you?' He was right, I had just used insulation with a paper backing. I had to tear out a whole section, put up the proper plastic sheeting, and start over. Has anyone else in a wet climate had to fix this after the fact?

3 comments

3 Comments

pat5401mo ago

Ngl, that sounds like a brutal lesson to learn the hard way. When you tore out the wet drywall, how bad was the wood framing behind it? Was it just surface damp or did you have to treat for mold?

milam428d ago

See I actually disagree with holly here. That three day rain might not seem like a lot but in a wet climate like Seattle that moisture can sit in the wood for weeks if you don't open it up. I had a similar thing happen in my garage and the wood smelled musty for months after. Tearing out that drywall is brutal when you just hung it but it beats having a mold problem later that you can't see. Paper faced insulation just doesn't cut it in a place where it rains half the year. The 6 mil poly is cheap insurance and it sucks learning that after the fact.

holly_flores791mo ago

Brutal lesson" is a bit much. It's just part of building stuff. I've seen way worse from a leaky window flange. If the rain only lasted three days, the framing was probably just damp. Let it dry, spray some concrobium if you're worried, and move on. Tearing out one section of new drywall is a weekend fix, not a tragedy.