Dealing With Steam

[tcw5028]

Through a series of lucky events I have gotten to be friends with the owner of a local brewery/restaurant in my area. He has two locations but only brews at one of them and has to drive about an hour each way to get beer to his second location. He has a brewing setup at his second location that is just about operational but that project got scrapped. The reason for that is because it is located in the basement area of the restaurant and he is worried that the steam will have a negative impact on the wood floor of restaurant above it.

I know that he has some piping to the outside that to deal with the majority of the steam from the mash tun and brew kettle. The worry is more about generally having a higher moisture in that environment.

What are some ways to make sure that the steam/moisture will not have an impact on the wood over time? How have you dealt with a similar problem in the past?


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[chemman14]

De-humidifiers should do the trick no?

 

[tcw5028]

Yeah, that would be one way to do it.


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[LordUlrich]

A vapor barrier of some form will help, basically a layer of plastic between the floors, probably easiest to place between the joists and the ceiling of the basement. Also you want a lot of airflow, it will also help to keep everything far cooler. The brewery I used to work at had a large exhaust fan in the brewery, it helped a lot.
Depending on how often you plan to brew will also play a bit part in long term damage.
You could also ask over at the probrewer forum, it is more an issue someone there has dealt with.