We have lots of heat coming through the attic floor. The floor is insulated and floorboards are over top. Is it possible to use a radiant barrier on top of the floor boards? Very very seldom does someone go into this attic space, but will the radiant barrier rip or be injured if we would walk on it? What do you say about the idea that it is not good to put radiant barrier on the floor due to dust?
Yes, you can put a radiant barrier over the floorboards. If you use AtticFoil then I guarantee you won’t rip or tear it. Dust is typically something people won’t really have an issue with, but on occasion it happens. You can learn more about that here: How Does Dust Affect AtticFoil?
I have a unique situation with my 1800 sq. ft. Cape that was built in 1978. I have a wood stove chimney that goes up the center of the house and attic. When burning the wood stove in warms up the chimney and of course heats up the attic. Originally there was only Soffit and Gabble Vents and had no problem with ventilation in the attic, never seeing frost on the nails in the winter. Next, I put a new roof on and added a ridge vent along with the gabble vents still no problems. This past year we redid the siding and got rid of the Gabble vent (they said I didn’t need both) still have the same soffit vents which are vinyl, with holes, 18″ wide and run the full lenth on the house and Dormer . Also put a new roof on along with a GAF Cobra SnowCountry Ridge vent which is supposed to have twice the Exhaust, which has the old roll tpy off vend vent. Now only when I burning the wood stove, It still warms up the attic and I am seeing Frost on the nails in the attic. I put a thermometer in the attic and see the temperature is 10 Degrees warmer than outside air. When the wood stove isn’t running the temperature is within a few degrees and no frost on nails. My Question to you is, do I reinstall the Gabble vents since I never had the problem with them or do you have any other Ideas for me on how to get rid of the heat in my attic when burning the wood stove.
More “holes” in your roof/attic mean it will stay cold (that’s the goal when stopping condensation). So yes, your plan needs to be to find an approach to get more outside air moving through the attic space, to keep the air cold. When the air is warm and it touches cold surfaces (ie. the nails), the air will condense and create frost. So you need to get the attic air temps cooler via more ventilation.
We have a cape cod house with a cathedral ceiling on one side and a full front porch. Ever since we moved into the house there has been a stale hot wood smell when it gets hot outside. The insulation was packed from top to bottom of the rafters, and although we had soffit vents and a ridge vent there was no air flow. So last year, after a situation with getting two sets of defective Owens Corning shingles during a shingle replacement, we decided to bite the bullet and have the roofers remove almost all the sheathing, pull the old pink insulation out, replace the insulation, put in baffles, and then new sheathing and new shingles. But now with the warm weather our front porch kneewall area that gets the full sun is still piping hot, a good 15+ degrees warmer than outside, the air is dry and stagnant and backing up into the house and it stills smells like that awful old stale wood smell. The roofer said we had more air flow than before, though I question the installation of the rafters baffles and how much air is moving, , but the house smells awful. I see no water leaks, no water stains on the ceiling, no mold, humidity in kneewall area is low, someone once said it’s like kindling wood it’s so hot and dry, but the smell is pungent. How can I move the air either in the front porch kneewall area or draw the stagnant air out since the passive soffit / baffles / ridgevent doesn’t seem to be working. An attic fan? We installed small gable like vents on each side of the front porch knee walls years ago to try to let air escape to no avail. Would a small fan exhaust in the open front porch kneewall help move air built up from side to side (I’ve read that attic fans with ridge vents are a big no no but i am at my wits end of how to move this stale air out of the house.
If you don’t have enough intake to feed a passive system, adding a fan won’t help because the fan has to draw air from somewhere. This is why I typically do not recommend attic fans (see here for more info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWmW6yJ-EKc&pp=0gcJCdgAo7VqN5tD)
Thank you. I will check the soffit vents for debris,, we have only four soffits vents going across the front of the house where the porch goes all the way across, but we did add in that porch roof section gable vents on each side. So we basically have four soffits vents and two gable vents and then where the sloped unconditioned porch roof meets the conditioned sloped ceiling area of the house , that’s where the rafters have insulation and baffles leading up to the peak of the attic. I truly don’t believe the baffles are allowing much if any air flow. So basically the whole front unconditioned porch roof area is just baking in the sun. Just checked the temperature and it’s 82 degrees outside and 103 degrees (23% humidity )in the porch area in the front of the house.
We have a single-story ranch in Phoenix, Arizona and are looking to replace our underlayment for our tile roof. One of the roofers is proposing to add additional ventilation in the form of O’Hagin vents to our roof to ensure the ventilation “meets manufacturer” spec. Our existing ventilation is soffit holes (2.5” screened holes along the perimeter of house), 2 large gable vents for the house and 1 smaller gable for the garage. I’m concerned that adding additional exhaust may affect the passive convention between the existing soffits and gables but may be over thinking it.
I pulled up Malarkey’s spec for the product and it states that ventilation needs to meet or exceed existing building code standards. Our house was built in 2001 so I checked building code from 97-24 and it’s been 1/150 of the overall attic footprint through these years. From my own measurements the existing ventilation exceeds this a bit and maintains a good ~50/50 split between exhaust and intake.
What are your thoughts? Could the O’Hagin’s draw air from the gables effectively bypassing the soffit vents or is the simple fact that heat rises and the additional exhaust may be beneficial?
I would advise asking the roofer for their recommendations and maybe get a second opinion to ensure things align. In regard to the RoofingFoil™ + Underlayment All-in-One material, ventilation won’t change how that radiant barrier layer works, meaning the air can be static or vented. So the choice to vent the roof is more about the roof material itself, than the radiant barrier.
Hi Ed. Our house in PA is 40 Yrs old and was built without soffits. Attic ventilation is provided by 4 gable vents and a ridge vent. Three of the gable vents have fans on a temperature switch (only 1 runs). This winter large icicles formed off the gutters from melting snow atop the shingled roof (water refroze after leaving the roof). The difference between the attic and winter ambient was 20 degrees. We just had additional insulation added to the attic floor before that. It gets very hot in the attic during the summer but I haven’t measured that difference yet. I suspect the ventilation isn’t right. Do you have any suggestions on how to ventilate the attic correctly?
We have large old cape home. Our roof has two gable end vents, and soffit vents. Currently there’s fiberglass insulation from the soffits up the sloped ceilings of the second floor and stops at the attic floor (also insulated). We are considering replacing the fiberglass in the ceilings with spray foam (sealing the soffits). The hope is to prevent ice damming while also keep attic vented and unconditioned. One of us is nervous about plugging up the soffits. The other thinks it will be fine because we have gable vents, and since soffits work better with ridge vents, they aren’t really doing much. What do you think? In case it’s relevant, the reason we don’t want to spray foam the entire attic is because the nervous one doesn’t like the idea of spray foam in an old home at all, and stopping at the attic floor is a compromise. Thanks for your insight.
Soffits are down low, so actually they feed the attic regardless of the exhaust vents. If your attic will remain vented, you must have air entering down low so as it warms it can exhaust higher up (like where your gables are). I recommend keeping them and making sure they’re open/unobstructed so they can function properly.
We have lots of heat coming through the attic floor. The floor is insulated and floorboards are over top. Is it possible to use a radiant barrier on top of the floor boards? Very very seldom does someone go into this attic space, but will the radiant barrier rip or be injured if we would walk on it? What do you say about the idea that it is not good to put radiant barrier on the floor due to dust?
Yes, you can put a radiant barrier over the floorboards. If you use AtticFoil then I guarantee you won’t rip or tear it. Dust is typically something people won’t really have an issue with, but on occasion it happens. You can learn more about that here: How Does Dust Affect AtticFoil?
I have a unique situation with my 1800 sq. ft. Cape that was built in 1978. I have a wood stove chimney that goes up the center of the house and attic. When burning the wood stove in warms up the chimney and of course heats up the attic. Originally there was only Soffit and Gabble Vents and had no problem with ventilation in the attic, never seeing frost on the nails in the winter.
Next, I put a new roof on and added a ridge vent along with the gabble vents still no problems. This past year we redid the siding and got rid of the Gabble vent (they said I didn’t need both) still have the same soffit vents which are vinyl, with holes, 18″ wide and run the full lenth on the house and Dormer . Also put a new roof on along with a GAF Cobra SnowCountry Ridge vent which is supposed to have twice the Exhaust, which has the old roll tpy off vend vent. Now only when I burning the wood stove, It still warms up the attic and I am seeing Frost on the nails in the attic. I put a thermometer in the attic and see the temperature is 10 Degrees warmer than outside air. When the wood stove isn’t running the temperature is within a few degrees and no frost on nails. My Question to you is, do I reinstall the Gabble vents since I never had the problem with them or do you have any other Ideas for me on how to get rid of the heat in my attic when burning the wood stove.
More “holes” in your roof/attic mean it will stay cold (that’s the goal when stopping condensation). So yes, your plan needs to be to find an approach to get more outside air moving through the attic space, to keep the air cold. When the air is warm and it touches cold surfaces (ie. the nails), the air will condense and create frost. So you need to get the attic air temps cooler via more ventilation.
We have a cape cod house with a cathedral ceiling on one side and a full front porch. Ever since we moved into the house there has been a stale hot wood smell when it gets hot outside. The insulation was packed from top to bottom of the rafters, and although we had soffit vents and a ridge vent there was no air flow. So last year, after a situation with getting two sets of defective Owens Corning shingles during a shingle replacement, we decided to bite the bullet and have the roofers remove almost all the sheathing, pull the old pink insulation out, replace the insulation, put in baffles, and then new sheathing and new shingles. But now with the warm weather our front porch kneewall area that gets the full sun is still piping hot, a good 15+ degrees warmer than outside, the air is dry and stagnant and backing up into the house and it stills smells like that awful old stale wood smell. The roofer said we had more air flow than before, though I question the installation of the rafters baffles and how much air is moving, , but the house smells awful. I see no water leaks, no water stains on the ceiling, no mold, humidity in kneewall area is low, someone once said it’s like kindling wood it’s so hot and dry, but the smell is pungent. How can I move the air either in the front porch kneewall area or draw the stagnant air out since the passive soffit / baffles / ridgevent doesn’t seem to be working. An attic fan? We installed small gable like vents on each side of the front porch knee walls years ago to try to let air escape to no avail. Would a small fan exhaust in the open front porch kneewall help move air built up from side to side (I’ve read that attic fans with ridge vents are a big no no but i am at my wits end of how to move this stale air out of the house.
If you don’t have enough intake to feed a passive system, adding a fan won’t help because the fan has to draw air from somewhere. This is why I typically do not recommend attic fans (see here for more info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWmW6yJ-EKc&pp=0gcJCdgAo7VqN5tD)
I think you need to address the intake ventilation FIRST. More info here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUvgeP7–0Q
Thank you. I will check the soffit vents for debris,, we have only four soffits vents going across the front of the house where the porch goes all the way across, but we did add in that porch roof section gable vents on each side. So we basically have four soffits vents and two gable vents and then where the sloped unconditioned porch roof meets the conditioned sloped ceiling area of the house , that’s where the rafters have insulation and baffles leading up to the peak of the attic. I truly don’t believe the baffles are allowing much if any air flow. So basically the whole front unconditioned porch roof area is just baking in the sun. Just checked the temperature and it’s 82 degrees outside and 103 degrees (23% humidity )in the porch area in the front of the house.
Yeah, that definitely sounds like too little intake.
Hey Ed,
We have a single-story ranch in Phoenix, Arizona and are looking to replace our underlayment for our tile roof. One of the roofers is proposing to add additional ventilation in the form of O’Hagin vents to our roof to ensure the ventilation “meets manufacturer” spec. Our existing ventilation is soffit holes (2.5” screened holes along the perimeter of house), 2 large gable vents for the house and 1 smaller gable for the garage. I’m concerned that adding additional exhaust may affect the passive convention between the existing soffits and gables but may be over thinking it.
I pulled up Malarkey’s spec for the product and it states that ventilation needs to meet or exceed existing building code standards. Our house was built in 2001 so I checked building code from 97-24 and it’s been 1/150 of the overall attic footprint through these years. From my own measurements the existing ventilation exceeds this a bit and maintains a good ~50/50 split between exhaust and intake.
What are your thoughts? Could the O’Hagin’s draw air from the gables effectively bypassing the soffit vents or is the simple fact that heat rises and the additional exhaust may be beneficial?
I would advise asking the roofer for their recommendations and maybe get a second opinion to ensure things align. In regard to the RoofingFoil™ + Underlayment All-in-One material, ventilation won’t change how that radiant barrier layer works, meaning the air can be static or vented. So the choice to vent the roof is more about the roof material itself, than the radiant barrier.
Hi Ed. Our house in PA is 40 Yrs old and was built without soffits. Attic ventilation is provided by 4 gable vents and a ridge vent. Three of the gable vents have fans on a temperature switch (only 1 runs). This winter large icicles formed off the gutters from melting snow atop the shingled roof (water refroze after leaving the roof). The difference between the attic and winter ambient was 20 degrees. We just had additional insulation added to the attic floor before that. It gets very hot in the attic during the summer but I haven’t measured that difference yet. I suspect the ventilation isn’t right. Do you have any suggestions on how to ventilate the attic correctly?
Will, check out this page on the blog for more info on how to solve the problem of ice damming: https://www.radiantbarrierguru.com/how-does-superperf-radiant-barrier-help-with-ice-dams-on-my-roof/
Hi Ed,
We have large old cape home. Our roof has two gable end vents, and soffit vents. Currently there’s fiberglass insulation from the soffits up the sloped ceilings of the second floor and stops at the attic floor (also insulated). We are considering replacing the fiberglass in the ceilings with spray foam (sealing the soffits). The hope is to prevent ice damming while also keep attic vented and unconditioned. One of us is nervous about plugging up the soffits. The other thinks it will be fine because we have gable vents, and since soffits work better with ridge vents, they aren’t really doing much. What do you think? In case it’s relevant, the reason we don’t want to spray foam the entire attic is because the nervous one doesn’t like the idea of spray foam in an old home at all, and stopping at the attic floor is a compromise. Thanks for your insight.
Soffits are down low, so actually they feed the attic regardless of the exhaust vents. If your attic will remain vented, you must have air entering down low so as it warms it can exhaust higher up (like where your gables are). I recommend keeping them and making sure they’re open/unobstructed so they can function properly.