Old House Attic Ventilation

Because the simplest and cheapest way to insulate an attic is to add material to the floor.

Old house attic ventilation.

Nowhere is this more common than in the attic. Air sealing and insulation. Warm air can also leave through your attic ventilation. If there s blown in insulation like ours rake back the fluffy stuff with a 3 or 4 ft long 1 x 6 photo 6 or use a garden rake or hoe.

Snow melts and the water refreezes on the cold eaves creating ice dams. For instance attic ventilation is used widely in cold climates to evacuate the warm moist air that escapes from the living space below. Unless an older house has undergone an energy upgrade it s certain to have too much air leakage and too little insulation. If this air lingers it can condense on the underside of the roof sheathing and rot it.

In the winter months you want to cover your attic vents if you can. A hot ceiling tells you that the attic is acting like a solar oven raising your cooling bills and cooking the shingles. If a vaporretarder is not present in the ceiling to slow migration of moisture from thehome s interior into the attic attics require 1 square foot of free vent areafor each 150 square feet of attic area. Thick ridges of ice on your eaves in winter are a sign of poor attic ventilation.

Generally speaking you need a ratio of 1 300 where for every 300 square feet of ceiling space you need 1 square foot of attic ventilation. Plan to pull up the flooring and layer new insulation on top of the old. Attic ventilation works on the principle that heated air naturally rises primarily utilizing two types of vents. Touch your ceiling on a warm sunny day.

If the attic is insulated with fiberglass batts just pull back any that are blocking the flow of air. Intake vents located at the lowest part of the roof under the eaves allow cool. That said air resistance and interference such as vent grates reduces the area of true ventilation. The fan is typically mounted behind a gable end vent but other types are available that exhaust hot air through a roof vent.

Warm air that escapes rooms below gets trapped in the attic. In the summer vents in the attic keep the house nice and cool. Attic ventilation adequate natural ventilation is important in the attics of homes. Attics that are already insulated will need more elbow grease.