Settlement at 85% humidity

Yes, it is possible to significantly reduce the humidity – depending on how wet the walls/floors still are. Is the house already ready to move in? High humidity is not initially harmful to children. It only becomes dangerous when mold forms. With the cold air, it is still worthwhile to ventilate a lot at the moment. Cold dry air can absorb a lot of moisture.

Hello,

Our move-in date is 26.04.2014.
Currently, there are four Trotek TTK600 units in the house.
Last night I turned them off once and this morning I checked the humidity: 85%

Can we move in with small children like this?
Is it expected that after another week of drying we will get significantly lower?

The screed will soon be 4 weeks old – what about the norm-compliant drying program for the screed?

Screed dried in compliance with standards

Today, surface heating is one of the most preferred heat emission systems for building types from single-family homes to large commercial properties. One of the key reasons for this development is that surface heating systems enable the efficient operation of heat generation methods that work with low system temperatures. An additional advantage is the possibility that underfloor heating can also be used in parallel as a surface cooling system. In new construction and renovation of larger projects, surface heating systems are mostly used, installed in wet construction in combination with screed. The drying of the screed structure requires norm-compliant heating according to the specifications of DIN EN 1264-4. The heating-up and cooling-down process is carried out in several stages, each with different supply temperatures. The supply of heating must allow constant supply temperatures.

Automatic Program for screed heating

For automation of the heating-up process, there is a mobile control unit. Over a defined period, the control unit enables screed heating according to DIN EN 1264 with various target temperatures. During operation, the actual state is monitored; if there is a deviation from the characteristic curve, the device issues an error message. For documentation, the control unit saves a measurement protocol that can be read via a USB interface. The user can access fixed heating programs or optionally create their own temperature profile. In the event of a short power interruption (max. five minutes), the device stores the previous heating profile and restarts at the interrupted point after power resumes. This feature saves the hassle of re-entering the data.

The control unit, which can be additionally rented together with the mobile electric heaters and mobile heating centers, allows the executing specialist company to carry out the processes of functional heating and readiness heating automatically and in compliance with standards. There are essential differences between functional heating and readiness heating:

Functional heating:

Screed constructions made of cement screed and calcium sulfate must be heated before the application of the floor covering. Although functional heating removes part of the excess water from the screed, the term does not refer to the heating process that achieves readiness for the subsequent laying of the floor covering. According to DIN EN 1264-4, functional heating serves solely to enable the executing heating specialist to prove the creation of a defect-free trade. Functional heating takes place after the specific curing time of the screed. This time span amounts to 21 days for cement screeds and seven days for calcium sulfate screeds. However, functional heating does not yet guarantee the necessary equilibrium moisture for laying the floor covering, as shown in the interface coordination of the BVF.

Readiness heating:

Achieving readiness is a prerequisite for starting floor covering work (e.g. tile or parquet laying). Readiness heating requires a different heating process than functional heating. In the interest of smooth construction progress, it is recommended that readiness heating follow directly after functional heating. For cement screeds, readiness heating begins after at least 28 days, for calcium sulfate screeds after 14 days. For screed thicknesses up to 70 mm, a period of at least 14 days is generally assumed for readiness heating. It is important for the heating specialist contractor to note that readiness heating is considered a special service under VOB/C (DIN 18380). Therefore, this service must be separately commissioned and remunerated by the client. For the executing specialist company, it is important to determine and document the point in time when heating operation changes from functional heating to readiness heating in the test protocol (Protocol P7 in the interface coordination). During readiness heating, the heating should neither be switched off nor should the supply temperature be lowered. Readiness is reached when the maximum moisture content is 1.8% for cement screed (2.0% for ceramic tiles and natural/concrete stone) and 0.3% for calcium sulfate screed. After confirming readiness, the screed temperature must first be slowly reduced again through the cooling-down process. The cooling-down process takes three days with graded target supply temperatures.

Source: you can find the full article on my homepage

Can we lay parquet like this and then continue drying?

No.

Best regards from the Rhineland

Without a CM measurement, you should not lay any flooring. And without floors, I would strongly advise against moving into the house. Especially not with children....

I am just imagining how the children are allowed/required to take a nap while work is being done in the house. Or that the children are not allowed anywhere because the cables are still exposed, etc. It is probably rather unsuitable for children! I hope this is not another case of a BH who terminated or sold the apartment before it was even certain that the house would be finished. By now it should have become common knowledge that this often doesn’t work! So far, however, little information.

I would avoid moving into an unfinished house anyway. Upon moving in, much/everything is usually considered accepted automatically.

With feedback regarding our questions, one can probably no longer expect (as can be seen from the profile)?!