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Air Mover Calculator

Enter the wet floor area and the wet wall and ceiling area above 2 feet. You get a low to high air mover count for the room and the LGR dehumidifier capacity the same room needs.

Our rule of thumb adds one air mover for each one, such as a closet, a bay or a jog in the wall.

Change the rule of thumb
Dehumidifier estimate for the same room

Plan on

3 to 5 air movers

For the wet floor
2 to 3
For walls and ceiling above 2 ft
1 to 2
For offsets and insets
0
Room volume
1,120 cu ft
LGR dehumidifier capacity (IICRC chart)
22.4 pints AHAM

The divisors are our rule of thumb, set to the method a Legend Brands technical director, a member of the S500 consensus body, described in Cleanfax. We could not check the wording of the ANSI/IICRC S500 standard itself, so treat the result as a starting point and follow the standard and your moisture readings on the job.

How the count works

Each wet area gets its own count, rounded up, and the counts are added together:

Floor: wet floor sq ft ÷ 70 (low) to ÷ 50 (high)
Walls and ceiling above 2 ft: wet sq ft ÷ 150 (low) to ÷ 100 (high)
Plus 1 for each offset or inset (our rule of thumb)
LGR dehumidifier pints (AHAM) = cubic feet ÷ IICRC chart factor

Example: 140 sq ft of wet floor gives 2 to 3 air movers and 130 sq ft of wet wall and ceiling gives 1 to 2, so the room needs 3 to 5. The same 140 sq ft room with 8 ft ceilings is 1,120 cu ft; on a Class 2 loss the IICRC factor for LGR machines is 50, so it needs about 22.4 pints per day (AHAM). For machine counts, use the dehumidifier size calculator.

Sources

Air mover divisors: our rule of thumb, following Brandon Burton (Technical Director, Legend Brands) in Cleanfax, whose worked example of 140 sq ft of floor and 130 sq ft of wall and ceiling comes to 3 to 5 air movers. Dehumidifier factors: IICRC, Initial Dehumidification Recommendation Factors and Formulas (Imperial, revision 3.1.22).

Air movers and drying gear

Frequently asked questions

How many air movers do I need per square foot?

With our rule of thumb, one air mover for every 50 to 70 sq ft of wet floor, plus one for every 100 to 150 sq ft of wet wall and ceiling above 2 feet. A 140 sq ft wet floor needs 2 to 3 for the floor alone.

Do wet walls need their own air movers?

In this method, yes: walls wet higher than 2 feet and wet ceilings add one air mover for every 100 to 150 sq ft of that area.

How many dehumidifiers go with the air movers?

Size the dehumidifier by volume: cubic feet divided by the IICRC chart factor gives pints per day (AHAM). The dehumidifier size calculator turns that into a machine count.

Why does the calculator give a range?

The method gives a low and a high count for each area. Start near the low number in open rooms with clear airflow and move toward the high number where furniture or offsets block it.

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