Hi everyone,
I recently had moisture issues in my attic that seemed to be caused by warm air escaping from my home into the attic and not being vented out properly.
I have recently gotten my attic toped up with blown-in insulation (6 inches) which now gives me an R-value of about 50.
Problem now is that there is some frost build-up on the attic roof and the nails look like little snowballs.
It seems that the problem with my attic now is not enough intake ventilation from the soffit vents since the frost in the attic is most prominent at the ends of the roof. It looks like the plywood simply goes to the end of the soffit, therefore, there are no holes to vent from. I have gable ends, but these do not seem to be enough to vent any warm air that may be escaping from my home into the attic.
I may need to get a ridge vent installed on the peak of my roof for now because I can't do much about the soffit vents at the moment... in the spring I'm going to drill small holes in the plywood beneath the soffit vents (not too many to weaken the wood but enough to get some good aitflow going).
So it seems like I fixed one problem, but created another, or, the issue with the moisture was ventilation all along and not lack of insulation (though the extra insulation can't hurt I suppose).
The insulation is a big improvement, but probably what happened was that the initial moisture I had in there was being caused by warm air coming into the attic from the kitchen and bathroom upstairs, and because the soffit vents were not ventilating properly, this caused a temperature differential in the attic, which caused the condensation... so adding the insulation is keeping the warm air out more, but at the same time, the warm air that IS getting in is being trapped more, so when it hits the underside of the roof, which is much colder, it turns to frost..
frost is better than water, but still needs to be fixed.
Also, I have an air exchanger up there that currently does not work. I have bought a new one but it is too large to fit in the attic hatch :furious:
So ayways, I'm thinking the air exchanger vents may be contributing to the problem (small air leaks from these vents. I have some loose material that I could just stuff into the vents (similar to synthetic pillow stuffing), but not in the actual ducts. Also, should I seal off the intake/exhaust vents outside going to the air exchanger?
I'm looking for some opinions on this issue and what would be the best course of action to take at this point. I'm thinking the ridge vent is a good idea, but I have no idea how much something like this usually costs $$$.
Thanks in advance...
Eric.
I recently had moisture issues in my attic that seemed to be caused by warm air escaping from my home into the attic and not being vented out properly.
I have recently gotten my attic toped up with blown-in insulation (6 inches) which now gives me an R-value of about 50.
Problem now is that there is some frost build-up on the attic roof and the nails look like little snowballs.
It seems that the problem with my attic now is not enough intake ventilation from the soffit vents since the frost in the attic is most prominent at the ends of the roof. It looks like the plywood simply goes to the end of the soffit, therefore, there are no holes to vent from. I have gable ends, but these do not seem to be enough to vent any warm air that may be escaping from my home into the attic.
I may need to get a ridge vent installed on the peak of my roof for now because I can't do much about the soffit vents at the moment... in the spring I'm going to drill small holes in the plywood beneath the soffit vents (not too many to weaken the wood but enough to get some good aitflow going).
So it seems like I fixed one problem, but created another, or, the issue with the moisture was ventilation all along and not lack of insulation (though the extra insulation can't hurt I suppose).
The insulation is a big improvement, but probably what happened was that the initial moisture I had in there was being caused by warm air coming into the attic from the kitchen and bathroom upstairs, and because the soffit vents were not ventilating properly, this caused a temperature differential in the attic, which caused the condensation... so adding the insulation is keeping the warm air out more, but at the same time, the warm air that IS getting in is being trapped more, so when it hits the underside of the roof, which is much colder, it turns to frost..
frost is better than water, but still needs to be fixed.
Also, I have an air exchanger up there that currently does not work. I have bought a new one but it is too large to fit in the attic hatch :furious:
So ayways, I'm thinking the air exchanger vents may be contributing to the problem (small air leaks from these vents. I have some loose material that I could just stuff into the vents (similar to synthetic pillow stuffing), but not in the actual ducts. Also, should I seal off the intake/exhaust vents outside going to the air exchanger?
I'm looking for some opinions on this issue and what would be the best course of action to take at this point. I'm thinking the ridge vent is a good idea, but I have no idea how much something like this usually costs $$$.
Thanks in advance...
Eric.