Roofing Ventilation Myths
Roofing Ventilation Myths
When most people think about roofing ventilation we have many different attic ventilation myths come to mind. We are going to discuss 5 of the biggest myths when it comes to roofing ventilation. Attic ventilation can be one of the most mis understood aspects of your roofing system. The American Institute or Architects claims that over 90% of the homes with in the United States has over the average moisture content in their homes.
Roofing Attic Ventilation Myths:
1. More Attic Ventilation is Good
The same as buying the right pair of pants, correct size shoes, making sure you have the right amount of attic ventilation for the size of home is equally as important in making sure things operate correctly. If your home has insufficient ventilation it can lead to a wide variety of problems, during the winter it can lead excess moisture build up in the attic and during summer months can lead to decreased efficiency of your HVAC system. On the opposite side of the spectrum too much attic ventilation can be equally as bad. In the most basic sense an additional roof vents creates an additional hole in your roof (roof penetration) which can act as another access point for water to enter into your home. You never want to increase the number of roof penetrations in your for no reason, this can lead to leaks from blowing rain or as an access point for sparks or smoke during a fire.
So, what amount of roof ventilation is the right amount? Without exception you should speak with a professional roofing contractor and have them conduct an inspection to determine the ventilation requirements of your home. As a general rule you can follow the 3-1 Ventilation Rule, so for every 300 sq/ft of ceiling space you want to have 1 sq/ft of attic ventilation. Ideally this would be 1 sq/ft of un obstructed intake ventilation (soffits) and 1st/ft of exhaust (roof vent). If your is sectioned off into various partitions determining the correct amount of ventilation can be more difficult.
2. Roof Vents and Attic Ventilation is for Warmer Climates
The majority of people believe that the only importance of roof attic ventilation is to increase the energy efficiency during the summer months. Although proper attic ventilation can help with this it is equally as important to take into consideration shingle color, sun exposure, and insulation. In fact, the colder the climate the more likely that your home will benefit from having the proper attic ventilation. When dealing with warmer climates you don’t need to deal with condensation- think about how often dew forms on your grass. In these climates, hot attic spaces are eliminated by installing a thermal barrier along the roof line, instead of the attic floor.
3. Roof Vents Remove Warm Air During Winter Months.
Many people get this misconception that because hot air rises, the attic ventilation draws all the heat upward in your home and pulls it out of your home causing un-necessary drag on your homes furnace equipment. If you are noticing increased strain on your homes HVAV system during the winter months you have much larger problems than attic ventilation and you should really be focusing on the insulation. In the majority of homes your furnace should not be heating your attic space, unless your home is designed with insulation directly on the roof deck and is designed without ventilation. The worst situation is when due to poor insulation warm humid moist air is allowed to enter the attic space from the interior of the home, when this warm moist air hits the roof it will likely form condensation which will deteriorate your roof decking, ruin the insulation you have and causing interior damage in the process. As an easy test for you wait until the sun goes down and enter into your attic with a digital thermometer and flashlight and take a reading, this reading should be almost the same as the exterior temperature.
4. Attic Ventilation Research
In some ways, roof attic ventilation is as much as an art as it is a science, and installing your own roof vents based on something you read online is like trying to diagnose a skin rash using WebMD. Finding a trusted and experienced roofer who has worked in your region for his or her entire career is a better judge for your particular roof than any research study or online “expert.”
5. I have Roof Vents so I must have Attic Ventilation
It is hard to find a group of people that will agree on what the best attic ventilation system is but everyone will agree on the importance of attic ventilation. For example systems such as a ridge vent which when installed correctly using the right product is arguably the best roofing system, while if you install a ridge vent without baffles that prevent outside air from crossing over the vent, a ridge vent may create almost no attic ventilation at all, as this outside air crosses over the vent and keeps air trapped inside your attic. Gable vents may circulate air through only a small percentage of your attic. Static, roof-line, vents are effective for ventilation, but generally aren’t recommended due to issues with leaks. Soffit vents may leave air trapped at the top of your attic. Most effective ventilation uses a ridge-and-soffit continuous ventilation system, but even these designs can vary from roof to roof.
If you don’t know how your roof vents work, or if you’re unsure about your attic ventilation in general, you should talk to a roof inspector about your current system and any inherent weaknesses that may be at work. The risk/reward for having no attic ventilation or poor attic ventilation, along with the negligible cost of installing a good-working attic ventilation system makes them one of the unforgivable sins of home maintenance negligence.
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Im glad you found the information informative, if you have any specific questions please dont hesitate to ask in our form and we will address them in a blog post.
Scott, this is a great post. You deal with the misconceptions that so many home owners have. Ventilation really is important in the winter. We are a replacing a roof right now that was improperly ventilated , and a humidifier was running inside the home for 6 years. The condensation had begun to ruin the plywood, and the roof is needing to be replaced about 7 years prematurely. I am subscribing to your blog.
You made certain good points there. I did a search on the issue and found mainly persons will go along with with your blog.
It’s not that I want to duplicate your internet site, but I really like the design. Could you tell me which theme are you using? Or was it tailor made?
I really liked your blog! It helped me alot…
Feel free to contact me via the email form about any questions about themes or plug ins used on this site and I will gladly respond. Thanks for reading and hopefully you lots of useful information on the blog.
Blue Moose, thank you very much for the kind words about the blog. Many homeowners when installing a new roof make errors only because they dont know what questions they need to be asking. By writing this blog I hope to educate homeowners and allow them to make more educated decisions when installing a new roof on their home. In todays new post we touch on the humidity issue and ply wood de-lamination due to condensation. http://adamsonroofing.com/blog/eavestrough-heating-cable-pros-and-cons
Thanks again.
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I had a new furnace installed a couple of years ago, they put the exhaust threw the foundation on the side of the house instead of going threw the roof(what they do now). Last year some water was dripping threw one of our pot lights and I looked in the attic and found frost all on the inside of the roof and some fallen on the insulation.
This year we added more insulation(blown in a couple of feet)figuring it would solve the frost problem. Just a couple days ago found water dripping from the hatch(which is sealed good) went up and found thick frost up in the attic again, more to one side thou. So I inspected the roof vents to make sure they were clear, and also opened up the soffit vents to make sure they were clear and not blocked with insulation. When I was on the side where exhaust from the furnace would blow(from foundation not roof) it was blowing out and up into the soffit vent! The vent was not directly above the exhaust pipe, but the breeze would direct it to the vent. I opened that vent and there was a little bit of frost on the grill , so I assume that is were the problem is coming from. I extent the pipe so it would miss the vent to see if that solves the problem or I might close up that vent. My neighbor also has a new furnace that exhausts from the side of the house and not the roof. He just had new soffits installed before winter, now were the furnace exhausts from the soffit above is now sagging from the heat. Has any one else had any problems with new furnaces the exhaust from the side the house?
Yes the warm moist air venting into the soffit is most likely was it causing all of your issues, this warm moist air needs to be directed away from the attic space.
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Adamson Roofing LTD.
1465 Chevrier Blvd Unit A. Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3T 1Y7