Snow covering roof vents - an issue?
phil17
11 years ago
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mike_home
11 years agoRelated Discussions
Help!! Exhaust Fan Venting Issues.....Mongo??
Comments (3)My first choice it to vent out a nondescript location within reasonable distance, a gable end wall perhaps. I do try to avoid roof penetrations. If you do need to go through the roof they'll have to pull and replace a few shingles to get the proper overlap on the roof boot. But there is nothing wrong with going through a roof and often times it's the best place to vent. As to venting through the soffit... First, just terminating the end of the duct into the concealed soffit space is bad. Bad bad bad. Even if you have a perforated soffit. Second; 1) Some jusridictions prohibit the practice outright. 2) Some prohibit outright if there are soffit attic or roof vent openings in the soffit. 3) Some allow soffit venting, but not within 3' of an adjacent roof or attic soffit vent opening. 4) The soffit vent should not be within 3' of a window. The distance restrictions are to prevent the moist air from being pulled back into the house. So can it be done? In some place it's against code, in others it's allowed but with restrictions. If it is done, again, you don't want to dump the air into the soffit cavity, you want some sort of termination hood or grill in the soffit itself. Some installers just use a round grill type of cover. Others use a specific "soffit hood", Fantech has one called the UEV-4 ( I think?) that has the upside-down "T" flow and includes backflow dampers on each leg of the "T"....See MoreBath Vent...out the roof or out the gable?
Comments (2)I'm agreeing with holly again....See MoreReplacing roof - vent or not vent? I'm SO very confused
Comments (1)I'm surprised no one answered your question. There are two issues here. One, insulating living space,or future living space. Two, addressing proper roof function. Soffit and ridge venting deal with the second but are complicated by the first. If the rafter bay is to be insulated, asphalt & some other roof materials require temperature control beneath them. The typical strategy is the use of "chutes" below the sheathing in consort with soffit/ridge. "Or should we have no venting and just spray everything with closed cell foam (or other foam spray)?" No venting, with any insulation sounds like trouble as regards issue number two. The advantage of the spray ins is inherent vapor barrier. Look into a new roof on sleepers with that plan. That would enable full depth insulation AND roof venting....See MoreRoof-mounted attic fan and snow (ice dam prevention)
Comments (5)I had a similar problem. I was loosing too much heat to the attic and that caused premature melting on the roof giving ice dams and huge icicles. A couple of years ago when I re-shingled the roof, I had double wide, anti-ice dams sheets installed. That helped tp control wetting of the walls, but the ice dam problem was still there. The main problem was too much heat in the attic. Last fall, I brought in an insulation contractor. He found that inside air was escaping to the attic from the tops of the interior walls. A powder room fan was vented into the attic. He sealed the wall tops, installed a roof vent for the powder room fan, installed insulation dams were the roof meet the supporting walls (to keep the attic insulation from contacting the roof and to keep a clear path from the soffet vent to the attic. After the prep work was done, fiberglass insulation was blown in to a depth of 2 ft to raise the insulation to R50. Four more roof vents were added plus 4 more soffet vents. This winter, there has been no ice dams and no icicles. The snow either blows off or does not melt until the air temperature is high enough to clear the rain gutters; End of problem one. I have to wait to see what happens for problem 2. Problem 2 is rain on a roof full of snow. That happens at this location about once every 5 years. My fuel use has reduced. I used "therms per degree-day" to make comparisons. I am 10% less than last year and 13% less than 3 years ago. This is a rough comparison because it does not factor in wind. I have a two story house and wind does affect my heat loss. However, the reduction is large enough to say that good attic insulation is important....See Morephil17
11 years agomike_home
11 years agophil17
11 years agomike_home
11 years agoalan_s_thefirst
11 years agoRichard Galbraith
6 years ago
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