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Condensation In Garage - Cover Bike Or Not?

Discussion in 'Technical Help' started by bradders, Dec 23, 2018.

  1. Do you have a link for that please ?
    I’m not getting anything coming up on eBay
     
  2. Cheapest I could find are demon tweeks and about £250. But it’s not the same as the one above
     
  3. Always had these problems in mind when deciding what to use for my new workshop 2years ago. Ended up using unconventional method that I had experience with through working with Fridge units in factories. The walls are 100mm thick polystyrene with plastic coated steel both sides. The roof is 30mm polystyrene insulated with again steel with coatings each side. Concrete base with floor paint. A few pictures. Sourced all the materials from the net. The roof was new ordered from Foregales at liversidge. The walls were 2nd hand from a fridge disposal company. All delivered to the door. Base & drive was 13 tons of concrete mixed at home with electric mixer. All in for a 4 metre drive & garage at 9 metres long by 4 metres wide cost under 4 grand. All work done solely by myself. Cheap garage & dry as a bone winter or summer. 20170408_145409.jpg small car.jpg 20170408_145452.jpg
     
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  4. Wooden garage. Not a large shed!
     
    • Disagree Disagree x 1
  5. Forgot to say all the panels are interlocking so its just a track on the floor & panels slid in. Took me about a week to put up but that was by myself. Guess with a mates help you could get the shell up in a day. I,m an old codger now 66 so you can guess I spent a lot of time drinking coffee. I reckon for a small bike shed without doing 6" reinforced floor it would only cost a few hundred pounds. My theory was the fridges keep the cold in so also keep the heat in.
     
  6. Mate I've bought all mine from EBay second hand. Keep your eyes open for one as they come up every week. ..
     
  7. I solved my condensation problems by keeping the bike behind the sofa in the living room! It also solved another problem through a process called divorce - win win. Happy days:)
     
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    • Funny Funny x 2
  8. Looks spot on that. Nice and neat. I used the same roofing from foregales on a concrete garage. It works well and easy to use.
     
  9. Its good stuff & no CONDENSATION. :p:p:p
     
  10. I would first investigate where is the damp coming from, is it raising damp or just condensation from the air?
    Floor
    Walls
    Roof
    Doors

    There are 2 ways to fight damp or condensation.
    1. provide enough ventilation to keep the air moving.
    2. seal all the gaps, properly insulate the roof/walls/doors/windows and get some sort of heating in there. (oil radiator set on low as above)
     
  11. And that’s where it gets confusing. Fill the gaps or create ventilation?!
     
    • Agree Agree x 2
  12. The idea of vent is ok if ambient is high enough but all it does in low temp is let more damp in. Humidity. Damp air ain't no good.
     
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  13. T
    That’s what I figured. Damp air is damp air.

    Often in houses nowadays we don’t have enough air circulation. Kettles, cooking, showers, baths even breathing all cause condensation. So we need airflow.

    Good insulation in a garage will make a huge difference. As demonstrated by the re-used fridge panels above. Then a really small amount of warmth will be retained.

    All said and done an air bubble is far cheaper but some kind of warmth under a cover is even cheaper than that.

    Anyone got any good suggestions besides a light bulb.
     
  14. But if you buy the sealed bubble type that has no air change at all - then a clean dry bike, the bubble and a dehumidifier (£1 crystal version) should work fine... as condensation forms when warm/hot moist air hits colder surfaces... drive in a freezing cold car (A/C Max) for 30 minutes then step out into a hot day with humidity... and your sunglasses / glasses fog up...

    Its the same with bike visor - cold visor - because of windchill with warm moist air (breath) on inside..
     
  15. Go out to a cold garage/shed now ( no later in the day, before it starts to warm, earlier is better) and get a cold metal object like spanner or hammer, I expect it won't have any condensation yet.

    Bring it in your nice warm heated house and watch the condensation form.

    Warm air + cold metal = condensation.

    ^^^^^^ that's what you need to avoid.

    Metal warms slower than air so keep bikes warm overnight or stop the air warming quickly.

    The more moisture in the air (bathroom after a shower) the worse it will be so combine with damp proof the floor (plastic sheets with rubber backed carpet tiles work well) and the walls and ceiling as best you can. I had dirt pilled against the wood off the garage causing it to rot and making he wood damp so I cleared a gap all round and replaced the wood.

    Let in zero light. Light through glass acts like a greenhouse and causes air to warm REALLY fast. That's why condensation is worst in Feb/March/April.

    Just my opinion based on my own experiences.
     
  16. I put a small cupboard dehumidifier underneath the bike and then drape a plastic membrane and blankets over the lot.
    The dehumidifier dries the air inside the resultant cocoon and warms it as well.
    Win/win
     
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  17. The tubular heater are good & very cheap to run. I had 1 in each engine bay on boat through winter storage. Most of the boating guys use them. Connected to a thermostat.
     
  18. I had a collection of 70s bikes some years ago and they were kept in my detached block built garage which was high at 4 mtrs and large 8 m X 8 Mtrs , one bike (Suzuki Kettle) was particularly prone to condensation , so I invested in a Heavy duty domestic dehumidifier and 4 greenhouse type tubular heaters. The heaters were laid on the floor under the bikes and the dehumidifier ran constantly when required, it worked out a lot cheaper than replacing rusted or corroded components
     
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