The attic of your home is more than just the perfect place to hide Christmas presents. But like so many other parts of a home, its importance is easily misunderstood. From energy efficiency to leak prevention, the attic is a crucial component that ensures the overall function of your entire home. Let’s take a look at exactly why Jacksonville roofers know this to be true.
The biggest job an attic performs is properly ventilating a home. Hot air rising from lower floors of a house often gets stuck in the attic. Without proper attic ventilation, warm and moist air has nowhere to go. This can lead to decreased energy efficiency during the hottest months of the year. A properly ventilated attic draws hot air up and out of the house. This is especially important during summer months because, without proper ventilation, heat radiates down into the home, which makes your air conditioning unit work harder, resulting in significantly higher utility costs.
In addition to the added expense of increased energy costs, homeowners can face another significant issue directly related to substandard ventilation. Simply put, an attic is an ideal environment for mold. As we covered above, an inadequately ventilated attic allows moist air to collect above your home. Mold needs this buildup of moisture to grow. When an attic is not properly vented, warm air rising through a home meets the cold surface of an attic roof and creates condensation. This accumulation of moisture will then drip down onto the floor, causing mold to sprout throughout the attic and into your home. The growth of mold is a potentially dangerous occurrence that should not be overlooked, as it can cause serious health problems if it is not removed.
So, what is a homeowner to do when faced with an ill functioning attic? One of the biggest mistakes made is thinking that the more ventilation you have, the better. This, unfortunately, is not the case. The right amount of attic ventilation is key to protecting your home. Venting your roof allows hot air to be expelled from your attic and protects against the dangers covered in the paragraphs above. Too much venting, though, can also cause unwanted problems. Roof vents create an additional roof penetration, essentially another place of vulnerability where leaks can occur. Some vents are necessary, but you don’t want to needlessly increase the number of roof penetrations, as this will expose your home, and roof, to unwanted failure. In general, the ratio of attic space to roof vents is 300:1, or for every 300 square feet of space, you have one vent. One option for homeowners is to have fans installed in the attic that will draw air out of the space and push it outside. Depending on your existing ventilation system, this may or may not be a viable solution.
Ultimately, ensuring proper attic ventilation will make your home more comfortable to live in, can save you money on your energy costs, and will help to ensure the life expectancy of your roof structure and roofing materials. If you are unsure of whether or not your attic is equipped to work as intended, it is best to have an experienced professional come to your house and perform an inspection. Many Jacksonville roofing companies will conduct an in-home consultation free of charge and with no obligation. To protect your attic, and your entire house, make the call today.