How To Ventilate Attic Soffits

Look at your eaves and roof.

How to ventilate attic soffits. If you don t see any attic vents on the roof or in the eaves you need to add some. Divide the vent area by the opening in each vent to come up with the number of vents needed. Ventilation can be accomplished using various products and techniques. Two simple alternatives to soffit vents can be installed with little more than a circular saw and a hammer.

The most common way to add ventilation to an attic is by installing air intakes in the soffits and putting an outlet at the gable of the house. A hot ceiling tells you that the attic is acting like a solar oven raising your cooling bills and. Touch your ceiling on a warm sunny day. A sign of roof leaks from ice damming or other causes.

Drip edge vents hang out several inches past the edges of the roof allowing you to trim. The main idea of the ridge vent is to act together with soffit venting to properly ventilate the attic. Intake vents located at the lowest part of the roof under the eaves allow cool air to enter the attic. Most building codes require a ratio of 1 150 ventilation space to attic floor space.

For example a vent with a 6 x12 opening would equal 0 5 sq. Begin by making sure your existing system works photos 1 and 3 plugging major air leaks into the attic photo 2 and correcting any other of the common causes of poor attic venting. Start by using a chalk reel to snap two parallel lines down the center of the soffit. Hot air exhaust vents located at the peak of the roof allow hot air to escape.

This creates a natural air flow by drawing in the air from outside pushing it up and out through the vent at the top of the house. Hole through the soffit right between the lines and measure the. Before we explore how to ventilate an attic space it is prudent to understand how much ventilation is needed. Next bore a 3 4 or 1 in dia.

Ventilation of attic spaces is required by most building codes as well as by roofing material manufacturers and the national roofing contractors association nrca. How to install soffit vents make two parallel lines. Connect the two cuts. When hot air rises up through the soffit venting it then keeps rising all the way up to the ridge vent.

This is called passive ventilation.