Prevents water from blowing into your home: If you live near the coast, rain and wind can push water under the eaves. Without proper protection of soffit, rain and moisture can make its way into your home. Occasionally check for mold and mildew and remove with a soft brush and cleaning solution.
We hope you found our post on soffits helpful. If you have questions about soffit vents or want to make sure your roof and attic are properly ventilated, contact Stephanie today at svanderbilt mycoastwindows.
Google Rating. Connie Paullis. Kristen Thiebault. Giana Battista. Laurie Kaufman. Jon Stanton. Wil Dalphin. Jeffery DiNardo. My Tan. Evan Olesh. Fred Genito. Rob Meuse. Michele DiMambro. Erik Nikonchuk. Jen B. However, soffit vents tend to be quite passive in their ability to move fresh air into an attic, so a worse setup would be having too few of them or having them combined with gable vents a setup that would encourage dead air to sit on top of your roof.
No, all of the soffits on your home need to be vented. A few factors can help you decide whether or all of the soffits should be vented. If you have an attic on the larger side over square feet , non vented soffits will probably work best. They may also work best if your roof has narrow eaves.
Blocked soffit vents can spell disaster for your attic ventilation system. But how do you know if one or any of your vents are blocked? The most visible signs of blocked soffit vents will come from noticeable changes in your attic. Here are a few signs to look for:. The job of soffit vents is to provide clean, fresh outdoor air to the attic, and in turn, to allow the air inside the attic to exit back outside.
If the air inside the attic is not able to escape because of blockages, it can remain stagnant, and overtime may develop a pungent smell, which can eventually permeate the other spaces within the home. When the attic in your home does not have a sufficient amount of ventilation due to vent blockages, it can begin to accumulate moisture in the form of condensation.
If enough moisture develops, the sheathing, insulation, and roof decking in your attic can become wet. As a result, mold will develop at some point. If you notice discoloration on the floors, piping, walls, insulation, or any other areas of your attic, you could have a mold problem.
So what may initially look like water stains or age marks may, in fact, be mold. When an attic is not properly ventilated in this case due to blocked soffits , it can experience huge temperature swings.
This is not an ideal environment for the wood structures inside the attic. Not only can these temperature swings cause shrinking and cracking of the wood beams and floorboards, but they can also cause severe damage to the roof of a home.
In the warmer months, you will likely see a spike in your energy bills due to the heat from the attic transferring to the other areas of the home. Some homes, both modern and older, utilize gable vents. These vents are exactly what they sound like. Gable vents are effective means of circulating air, however, they do not possess the same discrete aesthetics that soffit vents do. To solve this, architects and builders often use decorative trims that tie the gable vents into the overall look of the home.
Oftentimes, homes may have both gable vents and soffit vents. In these situations, the gable vents often act as the exit for air that enters through the soffits. It is rare to see a gable vent, ridge vent, and soffit vent, as this would be overkill and not necessarily gain anything for the homeowner.
However, some older homes have only gable vents. To increase the air circulation, homeowners often add an attic vent to draw air through the gables, circulate it throughout the space, then push it out the roof. Do soffit vents need to be cleaned? Soffit vents absolutely need to be cleaned. Ideally, soffits should be cleaned every one to two years. However, any cleaning is better than no cleaning at all. Soffit vents can easily become clogged due to dust, dirt, and other debris, which will lead to completely ineffective vents.
To clean, simply remove the covers of the soffits if possible and clear away any debris. If the soffits do not have removable covers, simply blow compressed air through the holes to ensure any debris is blasted away. If the soffits are accessible from the inside of the attic, simply use a shop-vac to suck out any debris. Some homeowners prefer to work with a local business to ensure this process is done properly.
Do soffit vents require a fan for circulation? An attic fan is not completely necessary to pair with soffit vents, but it certainly does not hurt. Without attic fans, the soffit vents operate by the natural flow of air into the soffit vents and out through the ridge vents. In most cases, this natural flow of air is more than enough to satisfy the needs of the attic space. However, there are individual circumstances that may benefit the added assistance of an attic fan.
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