Add an Attic Vent to Increase Ventilation
Do You Need to Add Vents?
Here are four signs of an unventilated or
underventilated attic:
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Look at your eaves and roof. If you don’t see any vents on the roof or in the eaves, you need to add some. Your roof vents may not look anything like the ones shown in this article. Your roof may have a ridge vent, which is a low-profile, continuous vent running along the peak of the roof. Or it may have gable vents, which are louvered openings at the top of gables.
Touch your ceiling on a warm, sunny day. A hot ceiling tells you that the attic is acting like a solar oven, raising your cooling bills and cooking the shingles.
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Thick ridges of ice on your eaves in winter are a sign of poor attic ventilation. Warm air that escapes rooms below gets trapped in the attic. Snow melts and the water refreezes on the cold eaves, creating ice dams.
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Warm air that escapes living space also carries moisture that will condense on rafters or roof sheathing. Grab a flashlight and inspect your attic during the winter. If you see dampness or frost, you need better ventilation.
Tools and Materials
For the best results, place roof vents near
the roof’s peak and soffit vents in the eaves. Air flows in through the soffit
vents and out through the roof vents. Vents come in various styles. We chose
rectangular, hooded roof vents ($5) and rectangular soffit vents ($2) because
they’re easy to install.
Everything you need is available at Home centers. Aside from vents, you’ll need a handful of 1-1/4 in. roofing nails, 1/2-in. galvanized screws for the soffit vents, utility knife blades, a dust mask and one tube of roofing cement ($2) for every three vents. You’ll cut holes for the vents with a jigsaw or reciprocating saw.
Expect to spend a full day on this project. A cool day is best. On a warm day, attics can get dangerously hot. Heat also makes shingles easy to damage.
How Many Vents Do You Need?
Determine your attic area by multiplying the
length by the width. A 30 x 40-ft. attic, for example, has an area of 1,200 sq.
ft. Aim for about 1 sq. ft. (144 sq. in.) of vent opening per 150 sq. ft. of
attic. The building code lets you reduce that by half under some conditions,
but more ventilation is usually better. The open area of a vent is sometimes
listed on the vent as NFVA (net free vent area). If not, measure the size
yourself. Roof vents will provide about half of the vent area and soffit vents
the other half.
Click image to enlarge.
Locate Roof and Soffit Vents
Adding roof and soffit vents is a simple
matter of cutting holes and installing vents.
Photos 1-9 show how it’s done. But before you cut
any holes, plan the locations of the vents.
Mark the roof vent locations from the attic, where you can see the rafters and avoid placing vents over them. Place all the vents on the same side of the roof. If your roof peak runs parallel to the street, put them on the backside, where they’ll be less prominent. Space vents evenly and mark the locations by driving nails up through the shingles (Photo 1). 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.
Place an equal number of soffit vents on both sides of the house, evenly spaced along the soffits. Look for nails and seams in the soffit that indicate framing locations, and avoid placing vents over the framing. To mark cutting lines on the soffit, make a cardboard template that’s 1 in. smaller than the vent. If your house doesn’t have soffits, one solution is to install roof vents near the lower edge of the roof. For better-looking solutions, call a roofing supplier (look under “Roofing Materials” in the Yellow Pages) or check out the vented drip edge at www.airvent.com (800-247-8368).
Add Baffles in the Attic
If your attic is well insulated, the
insulation might be plugging the spaces between rafters just above exterior
walls. That means air can’t flow from the soffit vents to the roof vents. The
solution is to add baffles, which allow air to flow past the insulation
(Photo 9 ). Baffles are available at home centers for
about 50¢ each. Installing them can be a nasty job, done in a dark, cramped,
dusty space. In an older Home, you might also find wood blocking between
rafters that needs to be cut, pried or drilled out in order to open an air
passage.
Stay Safe on the Roof
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Buy roof jacks ($7 each). These metal brackets support a plank that keeps you and your tools from sliding down the roof.
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Rent a personal fall arrest system (PFAS) for about $35 per day. You may have to call several rental centers to find one.
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Wear soft-soled shoes for the best traction.
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Clean up sawdust and debris to prevent slips and trips.
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Wet shingles are slippery. Stay off them until they dry.
1. Center
nails between rafters 18 in. from the roof’s peak. Drive nails up through the
sheathing and shingles to mark vent
locations.
2. Cut
shingles with a utility knife. Make the cutout area 1/2 in. larger than the
vent opening. Chalk provides an easy-to-see cutting
line.
3. Cut a hole
in the roof sheathing with a jigsaw or reciprocating saw. Drill a starter hole
so you can insert the blade to begin the
cut.
4. Slip a pry
bar between the shingles and separate the self-sealing adhesive. Then remove
any shingle nails that prevent the vent from sliding into
place.
5. Slide the
vent into place. Nail the lower edge with roofing
nails.
6. Apply roof
cement where shingles meet the vent. Add a dab of cement to secure the shingles
to the vent base.
7. Cut holes
for soffit vents with a jigsaw. Make the hole dimensions 1 in. smaller than the
length and width of the vent.
8. Screw
soffit vents into place with the fins pointing toward the house. Prime and
paint vents to match the soffit, but don’t plug the inner screen with
paint.
9. Staple
baffles into the spaces between rafters so air flowing in through the vents can
flow past the insulation.
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