If you notice discoloration on the floors, piping, walls, insulation, or any other areas of your attic, you could have a mold problem. So what may initially look like water stains or age marks may, in fact, be mold.
When an attic is not properly ventilated in this case due to blocked soffits , it can experience huge temperature swings. This is not an ideal environment for the wood structures inside the attic.
Not only can these temperature swings cause shrinking and cracking of the wood beams and floorboards, but they can also cause severe damage to the roof of a home. In the warmer months, you will likely see a spike in your energy bills due to the heat from the attic transferring to the other areas of the home. Blocked ventilation can also cause issues in the colder months of the year as well. If you live in an area with temperatures reaching below 30 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter, and you begin to notice layers of ice on the roof or shards that are constantly falling from it , you may have an ice dam problem caused by blocked soffit vents.
This can occur when the snow on a roof heats up too much during the day particularly in the afternoon and melts during the night when it cools down , leaving a sheet of ice on top of the roof. Ice dams can damage the shingles on your roof, resulting in thousands of dollars in roof and attic repairs. Adequate soffit ventilation consists of the proper balance between air exhaust and air intake.
When installed properly, they can ensure that your attic circulates fresh air and can keep your energy costs down. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Skip to content Post author: Simone Wilson Post published: November 15, Post category: Ventilation Post comments: 1 Comment We may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
October 23, Does Cellulose Insulation Settle? How Much? November 5, Don 28 Jun Reply. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Comment. Enter your name or username to comment. The soffit vents are now installed, but you still need to make sure there's no insulation blocking the new vents. If the attic is insulated with fiberglass batts, just pull back any that are blocking the flow of air.
If there's blown-in insulation, like ours, rake back the fluffy stuff with a 3- or 4-ft. Finally, to ensure that the airway to the vent remains open, staple a ventilation baffle to the plywood sheathing in each rafter bay.
In the last several decades, building codes have called for increased attic insulation. Most experts contend that a well-ventilated attic keeps the house more comfortable in summer and guards against moist, heated air building up in winter.
There are also dissenting voices who say that the benefits of ventilation are overrated. For instance, attic ventilation is used widely in cold climates to evacuate the warm, moist air that escapes from the living space below. If this air lingers, it can condense on the underside of the roof sheathing and rot it. A healthy airflow also helps with ice dams, which begin to form when warm air in the attic melts the snow from beneath and creates runoff that refreezes on the colder eave.
Great, but neither of these problems is experienced in warmer climates. Cookie banner We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. By Merle Henkenius. Pinterest Email Pocket Flipboard. Soffit vents are the most popular type of intake vents for attic ventilation.
They are installed just below the eves of the roof and they provide an easy, low maintenance path for air to enter an attic. Soffit vents should have a total net free area of 1 square foot per square feet of attic area.
It can be reduced to 1 sq. This vent area should be divided equally between the soffit areas on both sides of the roof. As per the code, this net area should be divided equally between intake vents and exhaust vents. Example: If the total attic space is sq. The total soffit vent area should be equally divided between the soffits on both sides of the roof, and they should be spaced equally.
The net free area of a vent is the area available for the air to pass. These meshes obstruct a portion of the airflow. So if you cut a 3 sq. This effective area is the net free area, and it changes with the type of vent cover you use. In many cases, the net free area of a vent cover is not specified. This can be a headache for DIYers. So here is a size guide I saw on the website atticbreeze.
To know the total size of the soffit vent to cut, multiply the net free area calculated with the corresponding multiplier of the soffit cover from the above table. In one of our above calculations, we found that the total net free area of soffit vents for a sq. Yes, you can have too many soffit vents as long as they are divided equally between both sides of the roof.
Having too much intake ventilation is not a problem it is having too many exhaust vents that is the problem.
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