Hey Chris, as mentioned this is a very dry, cold winter and we are seeing tons of new business for cracks, caved in domes, etc.
My advise for you and the store is that step one is a known, known.... calibrated hygrometer. Many of the hygrometers commercially available are way off right off the shelf or they are only accurate within a specific range even though they show more than that range.
Our solution is wet bulb testing in some variation, psychrometers, sling psychrometers, or simply two lab thermometers with the mecury ones being preferred if you can find them.
We use the wet bulb tests to calibrate our hygrometer and this can simply be using a sharpie on the face to correct it. My home hygrometer can be calibrated, an Abbeon Cal and it's an excellent unit.
Once we know what the problem really is or more specifically what the RH is then it's time to address it. I installed a $900 system on my home furnace and it works great. It's made by AprilAir and is rated for a 10,000 commercial space when my condo is a bit more than 1,100 square feet. It's set and forget all winter long and the only thing that I have to do is change the "panel" a disposable wick once a year. Panels are less than $20. It's 45% right now and always at my place because of this unit.
In our shop we also use an AprilAir with the same panel and that one has to be supplemented with a home made arrangement that Dave made that preheats the air, saturates it with humidity and then blows it out in our main shop. We can maintain 45% there at -14F which is pretty amazing for a 110 year old building with no insulation.....
Anyway step one is a quality, calibrated hygrometer and step two in my opinion is the humidifiers. Something hand's off is always preferable in a commercial environment IMO.
If the store doesn't want to invest in maintaining their inventory might I suggest finding a great bank for yourself Chris with the best rewards program you can find...
