A dry garage in a damp atmosphere

[Skyedriver]

It's rained here, west coast Scotland for much of the last couple of weeks and forecast rain for the next week.
Didn't want to, but parked a wet car in there two weeks ago and some of it is still wet!
The carpets in a project car in there are feeling damp.
The garage is water tight but the atmosphere outside is damp.
There is ventilation but with the air outside being damp it doesn't help.
I could put an electric heater in there and a dehumidifier but feel I'm trying to warm & dry the whole of Scotland.
Any cost effective options or do I just give up?
Thanks

[av185]

Can't rain without a break for the forseeable wait for a dry spell if only an hour or so then assuming the roads aren't saturated take your car out to dry it off then park in the garage with the door partly open the heat from hot engine will dry it off with no condensation and when it cools down after a few hours close the garage door.

[Skyedriver]

av185 said:

Can't rain without a break for the forseeable

Want to check our 7 day forecast?

[Mr_Megalomaniac]

You can build a "dehumidifier" with two buckets and a lot of salt that you change out every day. Or stick with paying for the electronic dehumidifier and run the outlet hose outside.
Then in the summer build a properly insulated and heated garage in the one you have currently.

[markiii]

elec dehumidifer costs pennies a day to run and will do the job

[OutInTheShed]

I use a dehumidifier mostly.
If you can close down the ventilation to a reasonable degree, it should be effective without trying to dry the whole planet.

OTOH, I do open up the garage when it's dry out, and also use a fan heater and a bit of ventilation when I'm working out there.

I can lock my garage door 'ajar' with about a 2 inch gap top and bottom, I do that if I've parked a really wet bike in there or something.

[DonkeyApple]

Just take The car for a drive to get warm and leave it running in the garage for a while with the door ajar. Then contemplate a dehumidifier of the garage can be well enough sealed.

[Skyedriver]

We have a dehumidifier, cautious about it's use as I don't want to be trying to dry all of Argyll.
We had 2 one hour long periods today when it stopped raining despite the yellow weather warning. One in the morning and one in the afternoon
Got the 2 week wet car out. The damp one I put away on Sunday swopped from one side to the other and the project car received a gallon of E5, started and left running for half an hour with the heater on full blast. So as well as getting the carpets aired I was able to test the heater controls and the electric fan operation so a bit of a win there.
Will get the dehumidifier going tomorrow as the place will just get damp again with the next week or more of rain.