Importance of roof ventilation
Ever wonder why my house is building up icicles?
Why does my house have no snow on it while everyone else does?
Why are my shingle only last 10 years and now are due for a complete replacement?
Why is it so hot in my house?
There are only a few things that have to do with the ventilation of your roof. There are more but we’ll only talk about those one for today.
You see a roof needs to be cool or as cold as possible. This will eliminate almost all problems above.
Winter
If we talk about the winter with the icicle and the snow melting on the roof. Now the reason this occurs is because the heat from the house is escaping into the attic and can’t escape. The roof is then warming up and melting the snow from under. The water runs down the roof and hits the eves where there is no more heat, it then freezes and becomes ice. If it’s warm enough it will just go down the gutters.
To know if a house has poor ventilation just wake up early on those first frost in the fall. Look around the neighborhood and see which roof has frost and which does not. Sometime it’s just a portion of the roof that melts and the rest does not.
The insulation in a house is right on the ceiling and not on the roof. So the heat from the house is maintained as close as possible to the ceiling. If the insulation is not good, poor, mice have done holes etc then heat will escape even more into the attic.
So we have what we call soffit in our house. These are the 2 ft or so extension of the roof outside. Under there is a soffit screen which is a metal trim full of little holes. These holes are there to allow air to go inside the attic from the lowers point.
And at the top of the roof are “vents” which allow the air to escape. So the cool air goes in the soffit and pushes the warm air out through the vents. Hot air rises so the more heat there is the more flow there should be.
So in the case of our poor insulation then with a good airflow it would take care of the problem.
Asphalt Shingle
For asphalt shingle heat is one of its enemies. Now a 3 tab asphalt shingle warranty for 25 year often does not last 20 years. Sometimes not even 10 years. Can you imagine doing your roof every 10 years, that’s insane. Invest in roof ventilation and you’ll get your money back in the long run, guaranty.
o the shingle is cooking from the sun beating on it. If the roof has good ventilation then it will help to cool the shingles down. But if there is little to no ventilation then the shingle will cook from the sun and from underneath also.
Go in your attic on a warm summer day. Even with good ventilation it gets really hot in there. With no ventilation it gets stupid hot.
Once your roof has heated, where does the heat go? Well nature always wants to keep everything as neutral as possible. So, if the roof is hot, then the heat can’t neutralize it as it’s close to the same temperature. What about the ceiling? It’s much cooler so it will try to go down into your house. If you have poor insulation it will make it way faster. But in the evening this is when you feel it sometime when we open the windows but the heat just keeps on coming and it seems we can’t win the battle. And if you have air conditioning, then it will be running constantly and sometimes it won’t keep up.
This will cost you a lot of money to run an air conditioning to keep up with this warm air coming from above.
More ventilation and you save money on air conditioning and if you don't have air conditioning then you'll have better comfort.
So if you suspect you have poor ventilation just call your roof expert for an attic inspection. They will give you a report and ways to improve your attic.
At Comfort Property we always give an attic inspection before installing a new roof. That way we can be sure that the homeowner will have a roof that will last a long time.
Why does my house have no snow on it while everyone else does?
Why are my shingle only last 10 years and now are due for a complete replacement?
Why is it so hot in my house?
There are only a few things that have to do with the ventilation of your roof. There are more but we’ll only talk about those one for today.
You see a roof needs to be cool or as cold as possible. This will eliminate almost all problems above.
Winter
If we talk about the winter with the icicle and the snow melting on the roof. Now the reason this occurs is because the heat from the house is escaping into the attic and can’t escape. The roof is then warming up and melting the snow from under. The water runs down the roof and hits the eves where there is no more heat, it then freezes and becomes ice. If it’s warm enough it will just go down the gutters.
To know if a house has poor ventilation just wake up early on those first frost in the fall. Look around the neighborhood and see which roof has frost and which does not. Sometime it’s just a portion of the roof that melts and the rest does not.
The insulation in a house is right on the ceiling and not on the roof. So the heat from the house is maintained as close as possible to the ceiling. If the insulation is not good, poor, mice have done holes etc then heat will escape even more into the attic.
So we have what we call soffit in our house. These are the 2 ft or so extension of the roof outside. Under there is a soffit screen which is a metal trim full of little holes. These holes are there to allow air to go inside the attic from the lowers point.
And at the top of the roof are “vents” which allow the air to escape. So the cool air goes in the soffit and pushes the warm air out through the vents. Hot air rises so the more heat there is the more flow there should be.
So in the case of our poor insulation then with a good airflow it would take care of the problem.
Asphalt Shingle
For asphalt shingle heat is one of its enemies. Now a 3 tab asphalt shingle warranty for 25 year often does not last 20 years. Sometimes not even 10 years. Can you imagine doing your roof every 10 years, that’s insane. Invest in roof ventilation and you’ll get your money back in the long run, guaranty.
o the shingle is cooking from the sun beating on it. If the roof has good ventilation then it will help to cool the shingles down. But if there is little to no ventilation then the shingle will cook from the sun and from underneath also.
Go in your attic on a warm summer day. Even with good ventilation it gets really hot in there. With no ventilation it gets stupid hot.
Once your roof has heated, where does the heat go? Well nature always wants to keep everything as neutral as possible. So, if the roof is hot, then the heat can’t neutralize it as it’s close to the same temperature. What about the ceiling? It’s much cooler so it will try to go down into your house. If you have poor insulation it will make it way faster. But in the evening this is when you feel it sometime when we open the windows but the heat just keeps on coming and it seems we can’t win the battle. And if you have air conditioning, then it will be running constantly and sometimes it won’t keep up.
This will cost you a lot of money to run an air conditioning to keep up with this warm air coming from above.
More ventilation and you save money on air conditioning and if you don't have air conditioning then you'll have better comfort.
So if you suspect you have poor ventilation just call your roof expert for an attic inspection. They will give you a report and ways to improve your attic.
At Comfort Property we always give an attic inspection before installing a new roof. That way we can be sure that the homeowner will have a roof that will last a long time.