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Anonymous10/15/25, 16:29No.2950977Moisture Meter. Help Please.
Mom wants me to go under the house and check the moisture content of the beams and joists and such. Legit concern given it's a crawl space closed in by a brick foundation (with vents, but still). She bought a meter, but it's garbage (plus or minus 4% error range when the difference between "dry" and "wet" is only 5%; also "contactless" with 9 different settings for wood depending on the density with no setting for southern yellow pine and a method for determining which setting to use depending on the moisture content of the wood and it's weight vs volume, which if I knew those things I wouldn't need the meter in the first place).
House is a bit over 100 years old. Beams and joists are almost certainly southern yellow pine. I just want a meter I can poke into the wood and it will give me % reading that's reliable and not "range of error might mean an okay reading is actually not good". I want to take multiple readings over multiple days to be sure of influences like weather and ground moisture (structure is close to the ground, it's a bit more of a belly crawl space than a crawl space). Does anyone have recommendations/experience with meters?
Please and thank you.
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Anon10/15/25, 18:36No.2951015
When I worked for a water damage restoration company, we would stab a known "dry" piece of the same wood in the same area to find out how wet the wood was "supposed" to be. Not the best answer but it was good enough for the insurance company.
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Anon10/15/25, 18:38No.2951016
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Anon10/15/25, 18:40No.2951017
>no setting for southern yellow pine
so use pine. there won't ever be a setting for "what some rando thinks the wood is".
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Anon10/16/25, 04:45No.2951094
post mom
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Anon10/16/25, 12:47No.2951133
Idk maybe instead you could just watch the humidity.
I run my dehumidifier all summer, but there's one room not connected to my basement, over a crawlspace foundation and I just don't think about it. I think there's a vent but it's under a low deck and basically impossible to inspect.