Roof Ventilation Tips For Your Home

Main Functions of Roof Ventilation

The purpose of ventilation is to ensure that harmful moisture does not accumulate inside the roof and under the ceiling covering. This is because, excess humidity can cause deterioration of the components of the structure, the equipment inside the insulation, and the base of the insulation itself. Also, excessive condensation causes deterioration of the interior materials below the cover.



Without ventilation, mold, fungus, humidity, condensation and steam quickly degrade the roof. Hence, some of the functions of roof vents include:

When humidity accumulates in the attic of your home, it causes the roof to deteriorate. The wood will rot, and the iron will rust and become less solid, causing a long-term risk. The problem is mostly observed in winter. Indeed, the hot and humid air of the house naturally rises to the attic and condenses under the effect of the cold.



Therefore, having adequate roof spaces to allow air passage will help reduce condensation and refresh the air to get rid of humidity, saving the cost of replacing your shingles, decking, and wooden roofing components.

Due to the humidity that condenses, especially during the winter, ice may form on the edges of the roof. The coating then deteriorates more quickly. This accumulation promotes water infiltration and can be very damaging.

Good roof ventilation helps keep the temperature of the house at an acceptable level. This allows you to save huge spending on the annual air conditioning bill, ventilating the interior of your house with fresh air. This would also extend the life of asphalt shingles. Indeed, attics that are too hot can cause them to age more quickly.

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of roof vents in sustaining the roofing layers. Therefore, when erecting a building, experienced builders like Hackethal Construction are needed to carefully equip the roof, providing it with reliable insulations and a ventilation system.

Thus, there are two major reasons to care for the roof ventilation device:

• Because residential premises always contain a significant amount of water vapor, which is formed as a result of breathing and sweating of residents and pets, cooking, hygiene procedures, and other processes associated with the use of water (washing, cleaning, washing dishes, etc.).

• The roof deck is, by definition, vapor tight, so it cannot guarantee the escape of steam.

Without taking special measures, the water vapor that rises with the warm air would condense on the inner surface of the cold ceiling. To prevent all these phenomena, roof ventilation is organized, implying the presence of an overhang and ventilation of the attic space. Through that, the movement of outside air in these spaces will carry any vapor that enters the cladding to the outside.

What Are the Best Roof Ventilation Elements?

The main roof ventilation system elements we can bet on include but are not limited to the following:

• Openings under the roof overhang, which are usually covered with soffit grills for protection against birds, insects, and rodents, and along the ridge. These structural elements provide blowing of the space under the roof due to wind and convection: when heating under the roof, air rushes up.

• Openings under the roof eaves are protected from rodents and birds by ceiling grids - they can be replaced with a file with small gaps between the boards.

• Dormer windows: These are installed on gables and are used for attic ventilation. Dormer is one of the important elements of roof ventilation that helps ventilate the entire roofing layers and the building interior.

• Ventilation Outlets: Like the aerators, they are sections of pipe, but they are not designed to ventilate the space under the roof, but to connect the exhaust ducts of the general ventilation of the house or to ventilate the attic.

• You can connect a home exhaust system to the vent or use it to ventilate the space under the roof.

• Aerators, also known as deflectors and vanes. They cut the roof covering at the ridge and serve to remove air from the space under the roof, that is, they perform the same function as the hole under the ridge. They are used in conditions where the thickness of the snow cover on the roof can exceed 2-3 cm (on low slopes), as a result of which the ventilation gap under the ridge would choke.

The roof ventilation is used to remove air from the roof space when there is snow on the roof.

The Importance of roof ventilation in regulating airflow in a building goes beyond allowing hot air to excel and cool air to enter the roof space. An air space or void under the roof, generally in front of the under-roof screen, makes it possible to preserve the longevity and efficiency of all these elements, to dry them out after the rain, to filter the hot air, etc.

Hence, other importance of roof ventilation include:

• Preserve and prolong the longevity of the roof elements.
• Extend the life of your roof.
• Enhance quick drying of rain and moisture after inclement weather.
• Eliminate condensation.
• Improve insulation performance