Welcome to my blog. My name is Deborah. About 15 years ago, I bought an old home. We worked with several contractors to rehabilitate it, but ultimately, the foundation simply wasn't stable enough, and we had to tear it down. After that, we worked with a construction crew to build a home from the ground up. The experience was exciting and challenging, and I learned a lot through that process. I want to share construction and contracting facts and information with others so I decided to start this blog. I hope that you like the results, and I thank you for reading. Enjoy!
Proper roof ventilation is an important aspect to be aware of in regards to your roofing system. Adequate roof venting, correctly installed, serves to pull in fresh air into the attic while pushing out heat and moisture. In effect, this lowers the temperature difference between the air inside and outside the attic space. Indeed, a good roof ventilation helps reduce the threat of serious roof problems for homeowners while extending the life service of roof systems. On the other hand, poor roof ventilation caused by trapped heat and moisture in the attic is responsible for the following problems.
High energy bills
Poor roof ventilation often traps heat and moisture in the attic space. As a result, your HVAC systems are bound to work a lot harder to either cool or heat your living space accordingly. This , in turn, leads to an increase in your home's heating and cooling expenses.
Spongy or saggy decking
When excess moisture starts to penetrate into the roof decking, it can dissolve the adhesives that hold the sheeting in one piece and cause it to sag, warp or feel spongy when stepped on. As a result, your roof system could be ticking bomb because it may be dangerous to step on or unable to handle heavy loads such as snow during winter.
Roof deterioration
Besides the ruin on your roof decking, excessive moisture and heat can also curtail the life of your roof underlayment and shingles. Missing, cracking or curling shingles are a good sign of poor roof ventilation.
Ice dams
An ice dam is simply a block of ice that forms at the tip of the roof where locked in warm air can melt snowfall on the roof, which then freezes as it cools. Due to the continued freezing, melting and refreezing process, a dam or barrier is formed, which prevents melting snow or water from draining off the roof. Therefore, the melting snow backs up at the back of the ice dam and stays in liquid form. This water finds openings and cracks in the external roof covering and seeps into the attic and then into walls and ceilings or via the ceiling insulation and discolours the ceiling finish.
Mould and mildew
Moisture is the perfect breeding ground for mould and mildew. If you notice stains forming on ceilings, walls or shingles, it's a sign that something is terribly wrong above. Poor attic vents trap excessive moisture, leading to the growth of mould and mildew, and this leads to the deterioration of the roofing plywood.
If you notice any of the above-mentioned signs, know that your roof ventilation may not be working properly. You can talk to a roof specialist and install a new roof ventilation system for adequate attic ventilation. You may even want to consider unique options like Skydome ventilation.
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