No Attic Ventilation Can Mean High Electric Bills - First Time Home Buyer Information

		What's In The Attic?
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Does the Attic Have Good Ventilation or is it a Mold & Heat Trap?
No Ventilation	Soffit Vents	Gable Vent

Many older homes in Houston originally had wood shingle or shake roofs. Wood shingles were usually attached to 1 x 4 or 1 x 6 furring strips rather than solid decking. This allowed the roof to breathe properly and prevented rot. Overhangs and soffit vents were not required. Wood roofs were banned in many neighborhoods because they allow fire to quickly spread from house to house. When it came time to re-roof the home decking was put down and asphalt shingles were installed on the solid decking. Now the attic can't breathe unless ventilation was added as it should have been when the roof was redone. If you add turbines or other means of exhaust without also installing air intake vents you will find the conditioned air and your money is being sucked out of the home. Even worse you can have dry rot in the attic from condensation build up. If you are looking at an older home without proper attic ventilation consider it a plus if it needs a new roof. When you have the new roof installed you can also have proper ventilation added. Some homes may have overhangs on two sides and no ventilation on two sides, that is okay, you still have a place for air intake, but I have seen many that are like the one pictured above on the left that have no ventilation on all four sides.

I noticed the flexible air conditioning ductwork was rotted in a house I looked at. The plastic outer covering looked like it was melted and the insulation inside rotted. At first I couldn't imagine what had happened to it, then I realized it was probably caused by excessive heat build up since the attic had absolutely no ventilation. This had been a rent house so the owner was probably unaware of the situation and I imagine the renters had no idea why their electric bill was so high.

New products are available for intake ventilation on roofs with no overhangs. Air Vent Inc. and Tamlyn, make a product called vented drip edge. Vented fascia board is made by Crane Products and Coravent. DCI SmartVent provides under shingle attic ventilation. Take a look at these products so you will be able to recognize if they are being used on a home you are looking at.

The National Roofing Contractors Association recommends 1 sq. ft of free vent area for every 150 sq ft of attic floor. For more details on attic ventilation visit the GAF site.

A Cool Roof Means a Cooler House and a Lower Monthly Electric Bill

Some people will put a new but cheap roof on a house before they sell it. I would rather they lower the price a bit and leave the old roof so that I can have a quality roof installed.

As you drive around you may notice that many roofs in Houston have stains on them. These are algae stains that come with living in the humid houston environment. When you purchase new shingles you can buy algae resistant shingles that won't stain. If you have to replace the decking on a house you can use TechShield® decking which has a radient barrier that claims to block up to 97% of the radient heat from entering your attic. For homes with high ceilings and little attic space this is something you really want to consider.

Elk has a new shingle out called the cool color series. Highly reflective granules bounce back the suns rays to release absorbed heat.

The roof is one of the most important parts of your home look it over carefully as it is also often one of the most neglected parts of the home. If you find a home you like without proper attic ventilation, point this out to the seller and ask for a price reduction. Chances are the seller has no idea but chances are just as good that other buyers also have no idea. Uneducated buyers may be willing to pay a higher price.

I would rather have a smaller house with an energy efficient roof than a large house with a cheap roof that contributes to high electric & gas bills. Labor costs should be no more to install high quality shingles than they are to install low quality shingles. Either way you have to pay for the labor, might as well pay a bit extra for high quality, longer lasting products.

Visit the Small House Society for information on living small.

Does the Attic Have Good Ventilation or is it a Mold & Heat Trap?

A Cool Roof Means a Cooler House and a Lower Monthly Electric Bill