Roof Attic Vents – Why Your Home Needs to Breathe
Roof Attic Vents – Why Your Home Needs to Breathe
Your roof’s ability to ventilate the excess heat in the attic space is a vital component that helps extend the life of your roof, improve energy efficiency and keep your home’s ecosystem healthy. Poor ventilation can lead to unnecessarily high cooling costs due to trapped heat in the summer months. This excess heat also leads to premature degradation of the roof surface due to degranulation, thermal cracking and ultimately water intrusion. In addition, excess moisture or humidity trapped in the attic space can result in a reduction in the efficiency of your attic insulation and delamination to sheathing or decking substrate compromising your roof and leading to costly repairs down the road. No doubt you can see the need to proper attic ventilation. It improves the comfort of your home, protects your investment and your pocket book.
How Can I Tell If My Roof Needs More Ventilation?
Here are some signs that your home needs better roof ventilation:
- High Energy Costs. Hot air naturally rises due to heat convection and eventually ends up in your attic accumulating in your attic space. If the roof lacks proper ventilation, the amount of trapped heat is increased keeping your indoor temperatures higher and your AC working harder than it should. This can also cause your AC to run later into the evening as the roof continues to radiate and conduct excess heat back into the attic space your home. This can also re-enter the living space through ceiling registers when no properly sealed, skylight wells, whole house fan openings, etc.
- Excessive Attic Humidity. Inadequate airflow can cause heat and moisture buildup inside your attic leading to various issues such as sheetrock nail pops, bowing sheetrock on the ceiling and roof structural members to flex resulting in settling, sheathing delamination and at times even mold can begin to grow.
- Damaged Shingles. One of the most obvious signs of a poorly ventilated roof (aside from a lack of obvious vents) is cracked or prematurely degranulating shingles. Roof surfaces absorb a great deal of heat and degranulation naturally occurs over the long term as the roof begins to age. You will also notice granules in the gutters when a roof is first installed. However, if your roofs shingles have horizontal cracks or thermal cracking, are loosing excess granules, are warped, curling, or delaminating then your roof temperature is likely excessive and in need of additional ventilation to extend the life of the roof as much as possible. If cracking or degranulation progresses too far it will lead to replacement much sooner than usual.
If you’re worried about your roof ventilation a qualified roof specialist from Harlan Quality Roofing can do a free inspection or estimate to provide additional ventilation on your roof and address roof related issues that result from poor ventilation.
For quality roof maintenance, installation or roof repair, call Harlan Roofing. We provide honest estimates and recommendations throughout the Sacramento Valley. If you are looking for a roofing contractor who cares with an excellent reputation for quality, call us today!