Proper roof ventilation is essential to protect your home from moisture damage and keep your roofing materials from premature failure.
Roof ventilation is an essential aspect of maintaining a healthy and long-lasting roof. Proper ventilation helps regulate the temperature of your attic and reduce humidity levels, which can cause mold growth, moisture damage, and other severe issues.
Without proper roof ventilation, you allow the attic to remain at a high temperature. This can damage and crack your shingles well before they should be showing signs of damage. Go with the flow. Roof vents create proper air flow, which reduces moisture that can build up inside an attic.
While soffit vents are highly effective, proper installation is critical. Soffit vents must be installed in conjunction with proper sealing and insulation to prevent issues. If the attic is not adequately sealed, outdoor air may carry moisture into the space.
Beyond the energy savings, roof ventilation can also prevent many issues, including mold growth, ice dams, and structural damage due to moisture in your attic.
The two main dangers associated with too much ventilation involve roof damage and increased utility bills. If you have too much air circulating, your roof will collect moisture causing damages that will weaken spots and then cause leaking.
A universally accepted guideline for roof ventilation is the 1/150 ventilation rule. According to this rule, a roof must have ventilation that is at least one square foot for every 150 square feet of attic or crawl space. A minimum of 13.3 square feet of ventilation is needed for a 2,000-square-foot attic.
Attic fans remove warm air from the attic, and that can help keep the rest of your home cooler, too. Air from a hot attic can seep into your house and make your air conditioner work harder and more often. Not only does that increase your electricity bill, but it can also decrease the lifespan of your units.
With insufficient ventilation, warm air lingers in summer, which can lead to overheating and the need for more cooling. In winter, a lack of ventilation can allow cold air to enter, requiring more heating. This results in a higher energy consumption for both heating and cooling, and consequently higher energy bills.
1. Upstairs rooms are hot during the summer months. The first sign of poor attic ventilation is when your upstairs rooms are uncomfortably hot. Without proper attic ventilation, the hot air gets trapped with no fresh air being pulled in.
Indeed, a 2020 study of coping strategies during the pandemic found that venting was linked to poorer mental health, while tactics like accepting, joking about, and positively reframing the situation seemed to boost well-being. “You should generally act how you hope to feel,” Cougle says.
Roof vents undoubtedly play a crucial role in cooling your home, but it's indirect. While they don't actively blow cold air like an air conditioner, they work to regulate the temperature in your attic, which ultimately impacts the overall comfort level of your living space.
Excessive Heat in the Attic
With poor ventilation in house, the hot air concentrated at your attic's highest points stays trapped. This, in turn, can lead to uneven roof temperatures (ice dams), an overtaxed HVAC (higher energy bills), and other costly headaches.
Manufacturers of the shingles require it for the whole shingle roof system to work. Your Enhanced Warranty requires ventilation to be installed. It prolongs the life span of your shingle roof. The roof ventilation keeps your attic cooler.
Adequate cold roof ventilation is crucial for preventing moisture buildup and its potentially damaging consequences. If moist air from the living area rises into the roof space and condenses, it can lead to structural damage, particularly to timber elements, as well as damage to any items being stored in the space.
Why are attic fans not used anymore? Due to inefficiencies in relying on existing attic vents for air intake, attic fans have lost popularity. These vents often aren't designed for this purpose, resulting in inadequate replacement air supply.
Roof vents play a crucial role in maintaining the health of your building materials and the overall structure of your home. They allow air to circulate and help prevent issues like mold growth, water damage, and structural damage.
While attic fans provide the same kind of ventilation as roof vents, there are a few downsides. If a solar-powered fan won't work for your location, you'll need to hard wire one in. Also, if the house is “leaky,” the fan could actively be pulling warm air from the home or other areas of the roof.
In the case of a mono pitch or lean-to roof 10mm eaves ventilation is required together with 5mm ridge or top edge ventilation. If the roof pitch is 15 degrees or less then 25mm eaves ventilation is required.
Common Over-Ventilation Problems
Wasted energy can result from over-ventilation, which leads to higher energy bills. Ice dams can form on your roofing structure. Moisture can back up in this area and cause leaks and serious damage that otherwise wouldn't have occurred.
Attic fans range differently depending on what kind of the Attic fan you are installing, you can expect to pay between $350 to $1,000 installed. The pricing varies based on the type of Attic fan, the sizing requirements, and the motor type.
Uncomfortable Temperatures
If your home is uncomfortably warm, especially upstairs, it may be a sign of poor attic ventilation. Poor roof ventilation traps heat in your attic, and often, the warm air can flow downstairs into your living spaces, like your family room, kitchen, or bedrooms.
Roof ventilation works very well to regulate both temperature and humidity levels in your roof cavity.