How To Vent An Attic Space

Venting the roof deck.

How to vent an attic space. So if your attic is 25 by 15 you ll need 2 5 feet of vent space. Look at your eaves and roof. For this method to be most effective approximately equal amounts of ventilation should be placed at the soffits or eave level and at or near the top of the attic space. There are many different kinds on the market today but they all have the same end goal of moving cooler outside air into your attic and pushing that hotter air out known as the stack effect.

If there are asphalt shingles on your roof the attic must be ventilated to comply with the terms of the. Attic vents were developed to help deal with this problem of too much heat accumulating in unfinished attics where it doesn t belong. Don t avoid ventilating your attic for fear you re letting cold air into the house. Your actual living space is sealed.

Here are four signs of an unventilated or under ventilated attic. A hot ceiling tells you that the attic is acting like a solar oven. Whole house fans powered attic fans. Hot air exhaust vents located at the peak of the roof allow hot air to escape.

Then divide the total area by 150 to find the total amount of vent space needed for your attic. Fans and vents may be installed on the roof system that will draw the air out of the attic space and exhaust it to the exterior. In addition insulation baffles must be installed at the point where the attic floor meets the roofline to prevent the attic insulation from migrating into the cavities and restricting the airflow from the soffit vents. If you don t see any attic vents on the roof or in the eaves you need to add some.

These fans may be controlled by a switch or a thermostat which detects heat build up in the attic space and. Outside air enters the attic space through soffit or eave vents rises through the attic space as it warms and exits through vents that are positioned at or near the top. Intake vents located at the lowest part of the roof under the eaves allow cool air to enter the attic. The venting path is essentially the same air flows up from the eaves and out at the ridge but creating a vent channel under the roof deck can be challenging.

To determine the area multiply the length times the width in feet. Touch your ceiling on a warm sunny day.