Venting Attic Space

For instance attic ventilation is used widely in cold climates to evacuate the warm moist air that escapes from the living space below.

Venting attic space.

Throughout the balance of this digest the terms attic and roof will and can be used interchangeably. Rarely will you find a building practice that works everywhere. Divide the attic s square footage by 150. A ridge vent is a ventilation strip that is placed along the ridgeline of the home.

The result is a cooler attic space with plenty of air exchange. Prior to installing the ridge vent a 1 inch wide strip of roof decking is cut out along both sides of the ridgeline to allow for air movement through the vent. Proper attic ventilation consists of a balance between air intake at your eaves soffits or fascias and air exhaust at or near your roof ridge. That said air resistance and interference such as vent grates reduces the area of true ventilation.

Wear a dust mask while working in the attic and lay planks or plywood across rafters so you don t step though the drywall ceiling below. Attic fans perform this ventilation by pushing hot air out into the environment while also pulling fresh cool air into the attic. The following is a list of options for installing ventilation into a residential attic space. Federal housing authority recommends a minimum of at least 1 square foot of attic ventilation evenly split between intake and exhaust for every 300 square feet of attic floor space.

It comes on an easy to install flexible mesh roll and is hand nailable with no complicated fitting wrapping nail gun adapters. Space attic vents evenly and mark the locations by driving nails up through the shingles photo 1. Follow photos 1 6 for the simple how to. In cold climates the primary purpose of attic or roof ventilation is to maintain a cold roof temperature to control ice dams created by melting snow and to vent moisture that moves from the conditioned space to the attic ventilation acts to bypass the vapour barrier created by most roof.

One reason for the lack of agreement over attic ventilation is the tremendous variation in climate across north america. Intake vents located at the lowest part of the roof under the eaves allow cool. 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.