As you learn and find the best insulators for your roof, it is equally important to know how to ventilate an attic. It might not look important right now, but a well-ventilated attic allows fresh air to flow and saves you from many problems.
An attic is a space between the roof and the ceiling. This space controls your home’s temperatures by providing a space for the slow movement of air. Some attics are extensive, and the homeowners turn the areas into extra rooms in the house.
Why You Need To Know How To Ventilate An Attic
Hot air is light, and when the house is warm, the air rises and goes to the attic. For that reason, ventilation in these small spaces in the home helps the air escape.
If there is no ventilation in the attic, the hot air will return to the room. This keeps the room’s temperatures high and makes the house uncomfortable. Ventilating the attic will allow cold and fresh air into your space.
Sealed attics can also lead to damage to the shingles. When the hot air from the room does not escape, it condenses at night, and the shingles absorb the moisture, reducing their lifespan.
During summer, hot air melts the snow on the roof. During the night, the temperatures lower, and the air condenses to create ice dams. The rooftop slowly absorbs the moisture and can begin to rot.
Ventilating your attic can help to prevent all these problems. You can visit this website to see the different types of attic ventilation.
Importance Of Ventilating The Attic
Excess heat and moisture can make your home an uncomfortable space to stay in and cause slow but massive damage to parts of the house like the roof. These problems happen in both hot and cold climates.
A. Cool The Home And Keep The Shingles
Ventilating the attic helps to keep your home cool. When the sun is too hot, the air in the attic is heated up. Warm air from the floor becomes light and flows to the attic.
The excess heat goes to the roof’s shingles, and it causes warping and aging on the shingles, destroying them. Without ventilation, the warm air continues to heat because of the hot sun. If it finds its way back into the living room, the room will have high temperatures.
B. Prevent Mold And Mildew From Growing
Heated air from the living room and inside the attic cools when temperatures drop. As a result, this air becomes moist, accumulating over time since it is not escaping.
If your roof is wood, the moisture causes significant damages like rotting. Accumulation of moisture can also lead to the flourishing of mold and mildew, making hard-to-remove stains and causing allergic reactions.
What You Need To Know On How To Properly Ventilate An Attic
Attic ventilation involves two types of vents: exhaust vents and intake vents.
Hot Air Exhaust Vents
These vents allow warm air to escape the attic. They protrude from the roofline but do not allow rainwater into the attic because they are covered. There are different types of exhaust vents.
Static vents, one of the common types, have an enclosed fan rotated by the wind to provide a cool breeze in the attic. Homeowners can also get powered vents, whose fans are run by electricity or solar.
As the warm air escapes, it goes out with odors, fumes, and moisture and prepares room for clean air. They also allow cool air to enter the house, reducing the work of HVAC systems.
Intake Vents
Roofers mostly install intake vents in the soffit. Some people will use a continuous perforated soffit covering the whole eave, while other intake vents come as small individual vents. So, they are placed some feet away from each other on the roof.
Intake vents allow cool air into the attic. However, they can also act as exhaust vents to let hot air out and cool air into the house.
Failure to install an intake vent could lead to ice dams during winter. Ice dams form because of the falling temperatures at night, condensing the warm air in the attic.
Hot air in the attic also causes the shingles to wear and tear because of the high temperatures they get exposed to during summer. This reduces their lifespan.
A Guide On The Best Way To Ventilate An Attic
After knowing the advantages of ventilating your attic, choosing the best ventilation for your space is the next task. You are spoiled for choice here. If you are unsure, you can contact a professional for help.
Ridge Vents
Homeowners install ridge vents to provide ventilation to the attic. The installer places the ventilation strip beside the ridgeline. It allows air movement in and out of the attic without being blocked by any house parts.
Soffit Vents
Soffit vents provide an entry of cold air to the attic and exit of warm air into space to ensure the proper temperatures are maintained. Homeowners should choose their soffit areas well for the soffit vents to do well.
When installing, ensure you place them at the intersecting point of the roofline and attic floor. It ensures that no air gets blocked from exiting or entering the attic.
Powered Attic Fans
These use power like solar or electricity. The installer puts the powered attic fans on the roof, and as the fans propel, they allow cool air into the attic and hot air out. You can connect the powered fans to a switch or a thermostat so that you don’t have to keep switching it on and off.
Gable Vents
These vents act like exhaust vents. They allow hot air out of the attic. Installers put them at the gable ends of the building, and they also block moisture from getting into space.
Final Words
Attics are essential parts of the house. Although some homeowners don’t make good use of the attic space, these spaces contribute to the comfort of the home. Learning how to ventilate an attic will help in making your house comfortable.
