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That fancy moisture meter lied to me and I paid the price
I painted my living room two weekends ago after using this expensive moisture meter from Amazon to check the drywall. It said 12% which is fine for painting according to the instructions. Well three days later I noticed bubbling and peeling right above the baseboards. Turns out the meter was reading the moisture in the wood behind the drywall not the drywall itself. I had to scrape off all that fresh paint and wait a week with a dehumidifier running before I could repaint. Cost me an extra $60 in paint and a whole Saturday. Has anyone else had a tool give you totally wrong readings like that?
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davidkim1mo ago
$60 and one Saturday is annoying but honestly that's barely a setback in the grand scheme of home improvement disasters. @kaigibson I get the frustration but stripping paint and running a dehumidifier for a few days is more of a minor inconvenience than a real tragedy.
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kaigibson1mo ago
Oh man, "it said 12% which is fine for painting" - I literally had the exact same thing happen with a moisture meter I got off Amazon last year. I was checking some old paneling in my basement before painting and it kept giving me readings around 10-12%, so I went ahead and slapped on the primer. Two days later the paint was bubbling up in these gross little blisters everywhere. I finally figured out the meter was reading the moisture in the studs through the paneling, not the paneling itself. Had to strip everything and run fans for three days before I could start over. I was so mad I almost threw the meter in the trash, but now I just use it on bare wood and ignore it for anything else.
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