Installing Venting Through Cold Attic

If the attic is insulated with fiberglass batts just pull back any that are blocking the flow of air.

Installing venting through cold attic.

The roof is vented by simple holes cut through the sheathing and protected with vent caps or by continuous ridge vents. You are then back to sticking the vent to the wall with the brackets and screws. Leave the drill bit sticking through the roof so you can find the hole. The warm moist air inside the vent tends to condense on the colder walls.

Use rigid metal ducting aluminum or galvanized steel with lengthwise seams facing up and joints sealed with foil tape or duct mastic or rigid plastic pipe. First determine your attic area by multiplying the length by the width. The building code lets you reduce that by half under some conditions but more roof ventilation is usually better. If you vent through a soffit where attic vents are often located the moisture will get sucked back up into the attic or roof venting.

Soffit vents the narrow horizontal section on the underside of your roof eaves. Having a vent in each side of the gable was the typical attic ventilation configuration in older houses but today it is considered woefully inadequate for an efficient house. The soffit vents are now installed but you still need to make sure there s no insulation blocking the new vents. You will then install the dryer vent through the hole that you have just made.

In of vent opening per 150 sq. The standard is one square foot of venting for every 150 square feet distributed evenly between the soffit and roof vents. Attic for example has an area of 1 200 sq. Install half of the required vent area in soffit vents.

Installation first requires a wood frame made of 2x4s installed from the attic between two studs. If there s blown in insulation like ours rake back the fluffy stuff with a 3 or 4 ft long 1 x 6 or use a garden rake or hoe. A 30 x 40 ft. The number of vents in your roof will depend on the size of your attic.

From up on the roof use a jigsaw or reciprocating saw to cut a 4 in. Start in the attic and drill a hole through the roof in the desired vent location. Try to keep it close to the fan location. The attic is usually colder than the rest of the house during the winter and that can create a problem for a dryer vent.

Adequate attic ventilation is important to reduce your utility bills and avoid damage to the roof and attic. Attach the roof vent to the duct that is from the top of the roof. Then aim for about 1 sq. Venting the soffits is often done by installing continuous strip vents between the soffit boards or by adding rectangular and round vents at regular spacing between the rafters the easier option for existing soffits.