Why Your Home’s Roof Ventilation Matters
Roof ventilation helps keep your attic cool and dry, but it also helps maintain a healthy environment. Both the roof vent’s insulation and an attic fan are critical part of your roof design since it allows for good attic ventilation, helping prevent condensation and early aging of the roof materials.
It’s simple for moisture to become trapped in your attic when there isn’t proper air circulation or roof vents and excess condensation can lead to extensive damage to your roof materials. improper ventilation can lead to ice dams, and cause damage to your roof and potentially your home’s interior structures too. The attic’s heat can also cause damage to the shingles from the inside out if there’s no way for it to escape properly.
Regular household activities can generate warm moist air like:
Running the dishwasher
Doing laundry
Taking a shower
The moisture then rises from your living area into your attic. When the moist warm air meets the attic’s cooler air, it condenses, wetting the insulation and surrounding framing members. Continuous wetting with no drying time can lead to mold growth on your insulation and roof rafters, leading to eventual structural issues with the roof and cause you to have respiratory issues.
Also, built up heat in the attic can lead to premature aging and cracking of the roof materials. During the winter, the warm attic air can lead to uneven snowmelt on your roof, encouraging ice damming. Ice damming is where melted snow flows down your roof to the eaves, refreezing into icicles along your roofline. The ice:
Expands
Backs up under the shingles
Exposes the roofing paper and protective covering to water
This can cause delamination of your roof’s protective covering, allowing attic insulation and framing to get wet continuously without drying and as mentioned previously, leading to mold growth. Wet insulation diminishes R-value, putting extra strain on your HVAC system, which increases your energy bills. Also, attic water leaks can eventually cause damage to the drywall in your living space.
Just like you would size your air conditioning unit and furnace properly, you want the correct amount of attic ventilation in your house. But, while insufficient ventilation can cause decreased energy efficiency in the summertime and moisture problems in the wintertime, too much ventilation is just as bad. So, be sure to work with a professional, such as the experts at WholeHouseFan.com to determine what your home needs. Call us today at 1.888.229.5757.