How To Ventilate Attic Soffits

Divide the vent area by the opening in each vent to come up with the number of vents needed.

How to ventilate attic soffits.

Space soffit vents evenly around the bottom of the low sides of your roof. Hole through the soffit right between the lines and measure the. Two simple alternatives to soffit vents can be installed with little more than a circular saw and a hammer. Before we explore how to ventilate an attic space it is prudent to understand how much ventilation is needed.

If you don t see any attic vents on the roof or in the eaves you need to add some. Intake vents located at the lowest part of the roof under the eaves allow cool air to enter the attic. A sign of roof leaks from ice damming or other causes. The most common way to add ventilation to an attic is by installing air intakes in the soffits and putting an outlet at the gable of the house.

Ventilation of attic spaces is required by most building codes as well as by roofing material manufacturers and the national roofing contractors association nrca. A hot ceiling tells you that the attic is acting like a solar oven raising your cooling bills and. When hot air rises up through the soffit venting it then keeps rising all the way up to the ridge vent. For example a vent with a 6 x12 opening would equal 0 5 sq.

Touch your ceiling on a warm sunny day. Start by using a chalk reel to snap two parallel lines down the center of the soffit. If you have either ice dams or moisture buildup improve your attic ventilation. Next bore a 3 4 or 1 in dia.

Connect the two cuts. Drip edge vents hang out several inches past the edges of the roof allowing you to trim. This is called passive ventilation. Look at your eaves and roof.

Your roof vents may not look. This creates a natural air flow by drawing in the air from outside pushing it up and out through the vent at the top of the house. Begin by making sure your existing system works photos 1 and 3 plugging major air leaks into the attic photo 2 and correcting any other of the common causes of poor attic venting. How to install soffit vents make two parallel lines.

Most building codes require a ratio of 1 150 ventilation space to attic floor space.