They re most effective when used in conjunction with a continuous ridge vent.
Attic too small get soffit vents.
It prevents mildew growth and rot on your roof s framing and sheathing by.
Here s how to keep the air moving with soffit vents.
These vents allow outside air to enter the attic at the lowest point of the roof along the underside of the eave.
In order to facilitate this exchange of warm and cool air the general rule of thumb suggests installing at least 1 sq.
The rule of thumb on the amount of vent space needed is approximately 1 sq.
Look at your eaves and roof.
A hot ceiling tells you that the attic is acting like a solar oven.
Generally speaking you need a ratio of 1 300 where for every 300 square feet of ceiling space you need 1 square foot of attic ventilation.
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.
I live in north carolina.
Soffit vents come in several sizes and styles including small round discs and rectangular grilles.
Of vent for every 300 sq.
Touch your ceiling on a warm sunny day.
Here are four signs of an unventilated or under ventilated attic.
A well ventilated attic offers four benefits.
If the attic ventilation system is not a balanced combination of intake vents installed in the soffit under eave or at the roof s bottom edge and exhaust vents installed at or near the roof s peak the attic ventilation system will not be efficient and effective.
My house has soffit vents on the eaves gable vents on each end of the house and a ridge vent.
Is this too much ventilation.
If your home is fitted solely with small gable end vents or a ventilator high in the roof you might want to consider adding soffit vents to increase airflow.
Building codes vary.
Talk to your local home improvement store or a professional contractor and get to improving your attic ventilation as soon as possible.
In other words the entire vent opening doesn t count as vented space.
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.
So if your attic is 1 500 sq.
That said air resistance and interference such as vent grates reduces the area of true ventilation.
Of vent space for every 150 sq.
Butt a cardboard template against the fascia and mark your soffit hole locations to begin.
This is called passive ventilation.
If you re lacking good attic ventilation installing a soffit vent where needed is a no brainer.
Ft you divide that by 150 to get 10 sq.
If you don t see any attic vents on the roof or in the eaves you need to add some.