Mitigate damp seeping into WI barn?

[hagoesch]

If you have pine shavings on the ground, I would keep an eye on the shavings to see how much moisture they are absorbing.

The only place we have shavings is in the coop and there's such a thick layer down, plus the sand underneath before you reach the limestone, that there's no moisture. That's good at least. I hoped someone had a miraculous idea for the wall-floor edges in the rest of the barn that my brain couldn't come up with Thanks!

 

[Dottie the Chicken]

HA, hey Dottie! We're in the southeast in Washington Co., about 2-5" depending on where you walk. You?

We got around 3 or 4 inches here. It's a pain to farm in.

 

[hayley3]

Can you show a picture of the outside of your barn? Does it sit high or low in relation to the rest of the land?

 

[hagoesch]

Can you show a picture of the outside of your barn? Does it sit high or low in relation to the rest of the land?

We sit atop a very steep kame (hill) in the Kettle Moraine area of WI. The hillside is covered in tall oaks, basswood and sugar maples. The barn is at the north corner of the hill up next to some of the trees, but almost entirely out of the shade. Their coop corner is at the southeast corner of the barn, with two high windows facing to the east. The coop structure inside ends basically where the far portion of the electric net fence is in the photo below (so beyond where the Dutch door and other window are is open space inside the barn right now). Hill drops off as you can kind of see (for some reference to steepness, in the mid-lower R corner is the roof of the neighbor's horse barn).

 

[aart]

The humidity inside is about 90%; inside the coop it was low 70s last I checked. Though optimally it'd be below 70, I'm actually quite happy that it's not creeping higher. During the snowstorm yesterday it was in the upper 80s. If you mean what is physically outside of those areas, there is nothing but more crushed limestone. If you mean weather-wise, there's about 2-4" of heavy wet snow and a temperature of 24* F.

What I meant by outside, is that I think the moisture is seeping in because of poor drainage outside....from a roof drip line of ground is sloping towards the building rather that away form it.

If humidity is 90% inside the building, hopefully that is about the same as outside the building.
Same goes for temps, should be about the same inside as outside.
Otherwise, you need more ventilation.

Covering up the seeping dampness inside the building is not going to help at all,
it'll still be there just hidden.

 

[hagoesch]

What I meant by outside, is that I think the moisture is seeping in because of poor drainage outside....from a roof drip line of ground is sloping towards the building rather that away form it.

If humidity is 90% inside the building, hopefully that is about the same as outside the building.
Same goes for temps, should be about the same inside as outside.
Otherwise, you need more ventilation.

Covering up the seeping dampness inside the building is not going to help at all,
it'll still be there just hidden.

Sorry for the confusion. The roof has a gutter that funnels all of the water off the roof away down the hill on either side. No drippage really. Humidity is 90% outside but 70% inside. We have a decent amount of ventilation, minimal drafting. I think since the baseboard of the barn isn't flush with the ground (I had to push the limestone up to cover the gaps inside and out), the moisture inside is just the natural seeping from the wet limestone to the dry limestone. Not sure if I can really do anything about it other than reinforcing the boards or filling in the gaps with some kind of rubber or putty? Mystery for now! At least the coop is maintainingg a decent RH. Thanks! Heather