Expert: Dave Johnson - 2/4/2007

Question
I am currently seeing condensation and then the freezing of the condensation on my ceiling where it meets the wall in certain areas of my home and also on my windows.  

Some history:  I moved into my newly built home in January 2006.  We've been in the home just over a year and have been having moisture build up on our windows etc over the last few months.  After speaking with my builder he advised to run our bathroom fans a bit more to help remove the moisture from the home. The builder also came to look in the attic where we were seeing the condensation on the ceilings on one end of our home.  The end of our home that the condensation really takes a beating from the wind and especially now (winter months) that the temperature has been hovering around the zero degree Fahrenheit mark for the last week.  The contractor had said the winds had blown back some of the insulation so he stapled some heavier rolled type insulation to keep the blown-in type of insulation secure.  That was approximate 2 months and we are now having more condensation problems on the ceiling and on our windows.  The home is an energy-star built home so I understand these homes are built pretty tight however I lived in a prior energy star home and didn't have these problems.  What are your thoughts?  Are there things that could have been missed in the building process that is causing this?  So - to recap my questions:

1) Why the issue of condensation on my windows?
2) Why the condensation on my ceiling?

Thanks for your advise.

Answer
The answer to both questions is obviously moisture.
So; If the home was built to energy star specs ther has to be an inordinate amount of moisture coming from somewhere within the house. Do you store green (wet) firewood inside the home?
Also, you said that the insulation was blown back...was it fiberglass insulation? Our "energy star" specs (in Maine)
recommend blown-in cellulose in the ceilings, and ther should be no place that moving air (wind) can get to the insulation directly. your rafter vents should have been dammed around them with solid insulation or spray foam and NOT a fiberglass. Then the air movement would be coming up through the vent only.
Where do you live? Is your contractor used to building these type homes? do you have a building code officer?
Please let me know how you make out, I'm a great proponant
of these homes and don't like seeing them have problems...

Good luck,
Dave