As the winter season approaches fast, you’re likely preparing your home to take on the nasty winter weather. From scheduling professional HVAC maintenance service to having your roof inspected, there are a lot of things to do. One thing you’ll want to add to your list is to check your roof’s ventilation system.
What Is Roof Ventilation?
Roof ventilation allows an exchange of air from the outside of your home to the inside by way of your attic. If your roof were to be completely closed off to the outdoors, it would heat up tremendously because heat naturally rises. When your attic has an excessive amount of heat, it can cause premature deterioration of your roofing materials and even foster unhealthy mold and mildew growth. A well-sealed home is ideal, but you don’t want too tight of a home envelope.
Types of Roof Ventilation Systems
There are two main types of roof ventilation systems that you may have in your home. This includes passive and active ventilation. As its name suggests, a passive ventilation system relies on natural convection to move air throughout your attic space. This type of system doesn’t make any noise, doesn’t require any power, and is completely maintenance-free.
An active roof ventilation system does require power to operate, and it produces some degree of noise. You can invest in solar-powered fans that can reduce the need to supply electricity to the fan’s location. With an active system, fans are responsible for moving air into your attic by way of intake vents. As fresh air gets pulled in by the fan, the stale air will move upward and out the exhaust vents.
Why Is Ventilation Necessary in Winter?
In the winter, you may be thinking that ventilation isn’t necessary. Many homeowners believe that they should seal up their roof as much as possible to help retain heat. This isn’t the case.
Ideally, your attic should always be within a few degrees of the ambient outdoor temperature. If you close off your roof during the winter, this will allow your attic space to heat up. This is because the hot air naturally rises. Along with this heat, there will be cooking fumes and excess moisture from activities like bathing.
When too much moisture and heat get trapped in your attic, it can create a disastrous situation. One of the biggest problems you’ll deal with is mold and mildew growth. When this microbial growth happens on your rafters, it can cause wood rot. This can drastically affect the structural integrity of your home. Plus, mold and mildew spores circulating in the air are very dangerous for your family to breathe in. This can lead to a number of respiratory conditions and aggravate pre-existing conditions like asthma and severe allergies.
The Parts of a Roof Ventilation System
Any essential roof ventilation system will have some key components that make it effective at providing adequate ventilation for your home’s attic space. The first component is going to be the intake vent. This is where fresh outside air gets pulled into your attic.
These vents are placed low on your roof, typically integrated into the eaves and soffits. It’s vitally important to ensure that your intake vents don’t get covered up with insulation. They need to remain open all year round to ensure fresh air can easily enter your attic space.
The next component is the exhaust vent, which gets placed higher up on the roof’s surface. As the fresh air comes in through the intake vents, it forces hot and humid stale air upward. The exhaust vents provide a location for this hot and humid air to escape back to the outdoors.
There are a few different styles of exhaust vents that you can have installed on your roof.
This includes static, ridge cap, and powered vents. Static vents get put on the roof, near its peak. They don’t have any fans, as they simply allow stale air to seep out the top of the roof. These static vents are available in a wide variety of styles and colors to help enhance the aesthetic appeal of your roof while providing adequate ventilation.
The ridge cap vent is another popular choice for regions that don’t get a ton of snow during the wintertime. These caps sit right at the ridge of the roof and allow the expulsion of stale air that travels upwards through your attic. Lastly, we have powered vents. These vents use a built-in fan powered by electricity or solar power to enhance the flow of air out of your attic space.
Top Reasons Your Home Needs Proper Roof Ventilation
Adequate roof ventilation works to extend the overall longevity of your roofing system. It also ensures that the warranty coverage on your roofing materials doesn’t get voided due to poor attic ventilation. With proper attic ventilation, you can have better control over your indoor air temperature. This can lead to lower yearly energy bills for your heating and cooling systems.
Signs You Have Ineffective Attic Ventilation
There’s no doubt that ineffective attic ventilation can cause damage to your home. Unfortunately, poor ventilation is one of those roofing issues that can be commonly overlooked until there’s a massive amount of damage. It’s helpful to be mindful of the key signs of poor roof ventilation so that you can call a professional to remedy the issue before it leads to several expensive issues for your home.
One of the most obvious signs of poor ventilation is mold and mildew growth. You’ll notice this microbial growth occurring on the wood surfaces in your attic alongside any insulation and belongings you have stored up there. Another key indicator is if you notice a drastic increase in temperature when you’re up in the attic.
Remember that an ideal attic temperature is within a few degrees of the ambient outdoor temperature. If the temperature feels significantly different, then you are likely to have a ventilation issue. If you have a shingle roof, poor ventilation can take a major toll on it over time. You may start to notice that the bottom portion of your shingles is starting to curl upwards.
This curling leaves the lower portion of your roof exposed to the elements. Repairing the roof ventilation issue before replacing your roof is necessary to avoid the same curling problem in the future. One additional sign of poor attic ventilation that you’ll notice during the winter months is ice damming. This is a buildup of ice on the eaves and of sloped roofs.
Expert Roof Ventilation Service
Jimmy's Roofing offers roof ventilation service to the Seattle, WA area. We can also help with all your roof installation, roof maintenance, emergency repair, roof cleaning, green roofing, and roof coating needs. We also offer commercial services.
Call our office today to schedule a roofing consultation with one of our specialists at Jimmy's Roofing in Seattle.