Current best practice for roof vents?

[LdB]

My shingles are a light brown, Ceder Tone as I recall. My neighbors roof is green and is bit darker than mine which would account for his attic being a few degrees warmer.

Our trees are too far from the house to shade the roof during the day. It would be nice to have the shade but it's also nice not having to worry about a tree falling on the place when the summer storms come through. I do get a lot of shade when the sun starts going down in the late afternoon.

I have a lot of room up in the attic and have a few radio antennas hidden up there. I'm a long way out in the country. Right on the fringe of radio reception. When I built the house I put in a catwalk the length of the attic along with a light and power plug.

I've been up in the attic many times on hot summer days. As a mater of fact I need to go up there now to put in another antenna but I'm putting it off until summer. I would rather go up into my attic in summer than in winter. Now how many times have you heard someone say that? :)

You can actuall feel the air moving up there. There is that much natural ventilation. I considered putting in a few additional gable end vents but found they were not necessary.

This is getting away from the subject but when built the house I put in a few large pipes between the attic and crawl space. I have the luxury of being able to fish into any part of the house with minimal effort. That's why the catwalk is up there.

Speaking of code I insulated way above code when built. I have R-60 in my ceilings. Even with all the glass I have this house is cheaper to heat than my old 50's bungalow that is half the size.

It really is a shame that it took so long for modern building techniques to evolve. Can you imagine how much energy would be saved today had these building practices been in place fifty years ago. Besides outright energy saving my house is very comfortable. I can walk around the place barefoot even when the outside temps are below

-40 deg and I don't have carpets on the floors yet.

Perhaps I can be an inspiration to some of the readers here. I built this house myself with the help of family and friends over the space of about ten years.

Even the cupboards. These started out as pile of rough cut sawmill lumber. Most people around here that wood for firewood.

Anything is possible. You just have to put your mind to it and have a good supply of elbow grease handy.

LdB

[Chet]

Soffit vents are for "intake" of ventilation, where the cooler air infiltrates. You need additional vents to "exhaust". Power vents are much like your information you have, USELESS. They don't work in the winter.

A vapor barrier does nothing for the attic as far as heat loss to the attic in the winter. Heat WILL still escape into the attic, even with PROPER INSULATION. The vapor barrier is for the "interior" or "thermal envelope" of the structure.

At least read up on this stuff, since you have no real experience with it. Here's a hint, read about condensation. You probably think a cold glass of iced tea in the summer, is leaking tea through the glass.

[Chet]

This is horrible advice. It demonstrates the understanding of basic physics.

Forcing air from an "outside wall" inward would be taking in elements such as water from something God created called rain. The fan would pull water from the louvers of any vent.

You have absolutely no concept of building practices. You're nothing but a hack.

[Chet]

Let me reiterate. It demonstrates the lack of basic understanding of physics.

[Home Guy]

Power vents *can* work in the winter. Some attic fan control modules have humidity sensors in addition to temperature sensors. They can come on in the winter based on the need for humidity control.

We aren't talking about heat loss as much as we are talking about interior house water vapor rising up into the attic. If you humidify your house in the winter, you do not want that interior air to get into the attic where it will condense on cold surfaces like the underside of your decking and rafters and cause rot and mold.

That envelope includes the boundary between your ceiling and attic - not just the walls.

If you have a proper vapor barrier between your ceiling and attic, you will by definition have an air-tight barrier and no (or very little) interior humid air will find it's way into the attic.

Now if you are dumb and you exhaust your bathroom and kitchen fans directly into the attic space, then naturally any vapor barrier you have up there is wasted and you are causing the humidity problem that you claim is bad.

Heat loss is up to the attic is not the same as humidity or air leakage into the attic. If I had to choose between a good vapor barrier between my ceiling and attic, vs having any insulation in my attic above the ceiling, it's no contest - the vapor barrier wins hands down. But (naturally) it's not a choice between having one or the other - you can (or should) have both.

With a working vapor barrier, you don't need to have attic ventilation in the winter, but you really can't totally stop the ventilation either

- even if your roof vents are covered in snow. Because if you have soffit venting, then winds blowing against one side of your house will flow up and into the soffit on that side, through the attic and out the soffit vents on the other side.

Speak for yourself.

Here's a hint: Any condensation or frost forming on any surface inside your attic is coming from water vapor that leaked into your attic from inside your house or was dumped inside your attic by an interior vent fan.

Air containing any humidity percentage you care to name will not condense on a surface that's at the same ambient temperature as the air in question. Air thats inside your house thats leaking into your attic will me MUCH warmer than the temperature of the surfaces it encounters, and hence the water vapor it's carrying will condense or form frost on those surfaces when it hits them.

Outside air thats at the same temperature as your roof decking will not condense it's water vapor on your roof decking when it enters your attic.

[Home Guy]

So you're saying that a fan that's mounted flush to a vertical wall, with a screen, and probably with a rain shield mounted over it's exterior opening, is going to pull in air with such force that it's also going to draw in any rain that just happens to be falling at the time that the fan is being commanded to turn on by the thermostat that's controlling it?

Did you ever consider the fact that if it's raining, that its probably cloudy, and your attic fan controller might not sense that your attic space is hot enough to require the fan to be turned on?

What exactly are you smoking?

You have little to no concept of physical reality.

I suggest you start taking your medication before your dimentia gets worse.

[Colbyt]

Nice work on the home and the cabinets.

Colbyt

[John Gilmer]

"the next buyer got a different home inspector who dinged the home for having a GFCI on the sump pump. ( I had installed one to make the first buyer happy) neither inspector found the very loose light box mounting on garage light, i had left it loose so they would have something to find......

"home inspectors the buyers best friend the sellers worst enemy./"

The home inspection process just gives a timid buyer other ways of expressing "buyers remorse!"

The buyers who bulk at a GFCI on an outlet likely weren't serious in the first place. But you CAN simply say that as a part of the settlement you are willing to pay a reasonable estimate of the cost to change what they don't like. That will bring a serious buyer back to the table but the timid buyers will not come back.

Frankly, a good real estate agent should have worked that out. If yours didn't get a new agent.

Frankly, the same technique can work for most "problems" found by an inspector or on the walk-thru. Either say NO or offer to pay a portion or all of the estimated cost of making the repair/change. Don't get into the trap of attempting to "fix" your house beyond your original intentions. For all you know, a perfectly good buyer out there would like your house EXACTLY as it is.

[JIMMIE]

I had rather buy a house that needs "paint and carpet" that way I can get what I want and save the "reasonable estimate". I would probably have to repaint anyway.

Jimmie