Proper Attic Ventilation Near You

Chuck: Hey, Austin. Good to see you again. Time just keeps rolling on. Austin: I'm really getting used to seeing

Chuck: I really like it. Well, you know, we go forever after COVID enough. See each other. Now it's a lot. So, let's talk about today's topic is a good one. It's about ventilation and you know, that lose it.

It's going to take us with your knowledge. That's going to do us a deep dive into what's going on with our roof and system. So, let's talk about the attic what's going on in there. I mean, of course, Kate, talk about. Attic insulation, but let's talk about the ventilation because we don't ventilate that addict.

Right. Our singles are gonna cook. Can you tell us why

Austin: that is? Sure. So, I think it'd be important to add a little context, right. And paint the picture. Right. Set the table per se. So you have in your AttiCat and your home, you've got your heated and cooled. Right. And then you go up into your attic and you've got your layer of insulation.

Right. And that insulation becomes a barrier between the attic and the cool area of the home. And then you're left with this oven, this little oven in the attic where we, where we put all of our Christmas decorations and, uh, my wife's crib from when she was a child that we're never going to use, but we have to keep right.

And so those that's where we, we Harbor all those things. It is dumbfounding to me how often I have heard one of my reps or a customer dealt with myself when I get an attic and they say, wow, you are the first guy to get in the attic. And I said, what do you mean? You tell me you've had another roofer at this house and he didn't take time to get in your attic.

And the reason that shocked me is because the number one cause for manufacturer warranty claims is. Heat related. So ventilation related,

Chuck: because somebody put, felt over the top of the roof, or you're supposed to have your rich van or tell me well, wow. That is so

Austin: the reason that manufacturers have so many problems is because asphalt, the product itself is susceptible to heat, right?

And as it, when it heats up, it starts to blister. So what a manufacturer wants is he wants a balanced amount of intake and exhaust. Right. So let's take a car. For example, you have the air comes into the engine right in the front of the vehicle, and then it exits out through the tailpipe, right? And an attic, you have soffit vents, and then you have your roof vents or in the most commonly Richmond is the one that most people know.

So the air, basically your natural air flow, you get a big gust of wind. That air comes in through the. And then it goes out through the exhaust. If you don't have a balanced ratio or if you only have one of those, right. Which most houses are built with just soffit vents and they generally don't have roof ventilation.

So you need that intake and that exhaust so that air can flow through li between the two. What we like to do is custom fit a package, a ventilation package for the home because the home could be broken up into several different areas. Right? You've got, um, different addicts sections that maybe are less accessible or more accessible.

So we want to make sure that whatever ventilation source we're recommending to you as a home. We recommend it in a balanced way, right? Because we need the same amount of intake and exhaust. So the air can flow freely. If we have too much intake, too much exhaust or vice versa, that air is not allowed to meet.

Clearly because stagnant hot air is what creates mold and mildew. Right? So

Chuck: what you're saying is if that's the case and you're talking about the shingles that they're basically cooking on

Austin: your roof, right? The oven is a pocket of heat in that heat sits in there. Right. And then it essentially bakes the roof from the under side.

And so what we need to do is install a proper ventilation system that allows that air to flow through between the two. Now, while we're in the attic, we're also going to assess for things like HVC issues, condensation lines, a double-wall heated pipes. We're going to look at a lot of things in your attic, but the main reason that a rep is going to walk into your attic.

Figure out what is the best ventilation source? Because as planet for contractors folks, couple of weeks ago, right? We're the only planet for contractor middle Mississippi. So at Owens, Corning is looking at us to hold the bar higher than everybody else. Right. So if I'm in partnership with my manufacturer and he's going to back, whatever.

And I know that his problem is a ventilation related issue is why he gets a lot of calls, right. As the manufacturer. So then I, we feel as though we owe it to the manufacturer to do our due diligence and custom fit ventilation packages for every single homeowner. So we have very specific. We take measurements.

We have a website where we input the measurements of it, and then it spits out a recommended ventilation source. We're going to check the eaves of your home to make sure that your insulation is not covering your soffit vents, taking a lot of precautions to ensure know one of the things that, and I'm not sure it doesn't happen every single time we go on an addict, but oftentimes I like to tell a rep, Hey, go ahead and turn the light off in the attic and look at that soffit and see if you can see some daylight coming through that.

Because if you can see daylight, that means it's not covered, right. If it is, then we may have to get a rake or something like that, and kind of pull that insulation away from that soffit. And it's something, if you guys like to do some YouTube and there's something called the Bernoulli effect and right, you can look up the Bernoulli effect and it gives a great example of how air flows through an attic.

So that's what we're really looking to do is come up with something that is completely custom to that property because no two houses are the same. So you're,

Chuck: you're saying to the DIY, do it yourself. Don't blow your attic installation all the way down

Austin: your roof. Yes. Do not. I do not. You need, you need to feel honestly, if it's a good windy day, you know, you should be able to walk into your attic and.

The fact that there's air moving through that if the winds blowing and 10 miles an hour outside right out of the east and you walk in your attic and it's stagnant heat, you've got a problem. Good point without question. Another thing that homeowners can look for is mold and mildew. It will show up on the underside of the deck and quite often it does.

And it's not a lot. You use the flashlight, you start to see it. But if you really look, you be surprised at how many houses are start to get moldy mildew, building up on the underside of that.

Chuck: So, what would you say y'all's favorite type of a top of the roof? A lot of people know about a Worley bird or turbines or whatever.

I don't really like.

Austin: So I think that, I think it's important to know that everybody has a preference. Right. But my favorite is the one that's best fitted for the home. I can tell you this my least favorite. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And the reason that a power van is my least favorite is because those motors fail and they need to be replaced.

I am not opposed to a worldly Berg. I'm a second generation roofer or early birds were just part of the process, you know, grown up, watching my dad do it. Worldly birds is what everyone else did. And Richmond had a negative connotation with it when it first came out, you know, in the late nineties, when Ridgmont really came out, it came out as a metal it's mash.

Right. It was it. Wasn't a very good product now. The last 10 years, the Richmond they come out with now, if it's fitted. No. The biggest thing that we see on, especially after 13, right after the Jackson storm of 13, a lot of out-of-town roofers came in and they threw Richmond on everything. Right? Well, the problem is that if you put that Ridge vent on every single Ridge and cut it wide open at the top, it becomes counterproductive because your intake is not suited to your exact.

Right. And so when you have too much of it, you can, it makes the system on balanced and the air won't flow properly. Right? So we want to fit whatever's best for the home. Some houses just aren't fit for Richmond. If you only have 4, 6, 8, 10 foot ridges, Richmond is probably not the best. Right. And in turbines do have a negative aesthetic appeal.

You know, they are big, they spin up there. But the fact of the matter is there's so many things that go into a roof itself and that no matter how good you do on any of those things, if you don't ventilate it properly, it will not last.

Chuck: That's a good point. I hadn't thought about these little short weeks, which in today's modern new home.

They're trying to pair it like crazy and you're right. There's not a lot of rage out there.

Austin: There's there could be times where I was actually just sitting with a rep last week and we were discussing a house and he was trying to figure out what was the best ventilation that he could recommend in that home.

And we actually ended up putting two different types. We put a Ridge vent on one main section and had to use a turbine on a small hip. They came out with. Because it just wasn't suited for Richmond on the back. There wasn't enough intake to support the exhaust. So we had to go ahead and go with a turbine.

So we actually did two ventilation sources on

Chuck: that. I get that point now. So of course, if you don't know roof and you wouldn't know that, well, this is what I want. Okay. Well that really isn't.

Austin: And if there's a homeowner out that let's say you're a Homer, and I know I just mentioned 13, but we had a, you know, we had a hailstorm in 16, right?

Whether Watkins did. If you don't feel like your roofer put an ample amount of effort into understanding what ventilation was best suited for your property and your roof is only five years old. If you want to extend the life of that roof, if you want to get the most out of that roof, you can add ventilation.

So I recommend any Homer that even, you know, if you think that your roots, not quite old enough to call walk-ins or anything like that, but if you don't think that you're getting ventilated properly, call us out, we'll be more than happy to recommend a ventilation source to a roof that we didn't even put on.

Right. I mean, that's, if we have to improve something that someone else did, so be it right, because the bottom line is as long as you keep it. Cool. It'll last. If you do not keep it cool. It doesn't matter how good of a job you do putting it on. It will not be there for the term. Give

Chuck: us an estimate. So say somebody blows in insulation and they block out their sobbing.

One second, I do the lifetime.

Austin: Um, and I would say it'd probably at least cut it in half, half people people say to me all the time. Oh, well, you know, this roof lasted 20 years. And I was like, well, you know, the problem is that it's really supposed to last like 40. Right. Like, and it's like, but we're here having this conversation.

You're 17 and nine times out of 10 is because it wasn't been with.

Chuck: Hmm. Okay. That's a high percentage. All right. Good stuff again. Uh, I've really enjoyed all these pockets. Really good information. So if, if you've got a roof leak, if you've got you go into your attic and it feels accessible, hot, definitely need to call walk-ins and get it

Austin: checked out.

Uh, no POS I like Tim nail pops to nail pops are, and I know we're running a little long here. Thanks for sticking with us. But what happens is that you get that heat in the summertime that expands that. And then you get the cool wintertime, right? Where it contracts that deck. And what happens is that nails starts to work its way out.

So you're squeezing the nails. It's squeezed knows that it pops out and then that nail pop bust through the shingle and causes a leak. That's a ventilation problem. That's one of the few things where you ask a common roof and say, Hey, can ventilation cause a leak? I bet you not on a tenant. When a matter of fact, if you think about it, the ventilation can be the,

Chuck: I do know that a nail pot can be absolutely is detrimental to your roofing.

Shingles is

Austin: big bottle halal. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Without a doubt. So if you're, if you are uneasy about your ventilation, you don't know if your roof has been ventilated properly. Give us a call. We'll be more than happy to come out and fit, assist important. Awesome stuff. Thanks

Chuck: Austin.

Roof Repair at Watkins