Attic Venting…

We are on a Multi-project – project in a nice neighbourhood in Calgary this week, working on all manners of handyman items, the least of not which is troubleshooting some venting in the clients attic.

The issues that caused concern for the homeowner included dripping through the ceiling during the summer when the AC was working it’s hardest. Upon inspection of the attic space, we found that there have been multiple layers of insulation installed over the years, along with house additions that didn’t take into account total airflow throughout the attic space.

The first thing we are doing is increasing the amount of passive airflow in the attic. This alone will probably do the trick, but to be sure we will be installing an attic fan, just to be on the sure side.

The house has plywood soffits, with not enough vents. The vents that are there have been plugged right off by a couple of factors. 1. The blown-in Insulation was just blown all willy-nilly and with no regard for venting. 2. The Insulation stops that were installed in half the house (probably during a roof replacement or home addition) were actually installed upside down. Yep. the cardboard inserts were installed so that they fit nice and snug into the rafters as opposed to the other way around to allow for airflow. There were a number of them that were nailed to the underside of the roof with the shingle nails! wow, talk about a wasted effort!

See that? The thin dark line hugging the insulation? Yeah, it should be the other way around to create an airway.

So essentially, this is what we ended up doing, but because of the high ceilings inside and the low roof angle, we had to do our best from the outside.

 

It took a LOT of jiggle-jerking around, but we managed to install 7 new vents and retrofit all the existing vents with the new insulation stops. Installed the correct way up to allow for unimpeded airflow into the attic. This will keep the humidity down as well as cool the attic in the summer months, saving energy as the AC shouldn’t have to cycle as often due to the high heat in the attic.

This is the same vent as shown above with the non functioning air vent, but with the new 4’ long Insulation stop installed right under the old one.

This is a shot of a new vent we cut in, then installed the ‘stop’ where there was just insulation packed in tightly against the ceiling. The angles were tough to manage but with the right amount of ‘love’ we were successful in 100% of our vents (new and existing) to open the airways.

This one shows the multiple layers of insulation jammed in there. what it doesn’t show is the blown-in insulation that is just beyond, on top of all of this! Our 4 foot styrofoam ‘stop’ does a great job of managing all of it.

 

The project wasn’t a lot of fun, but what retrofit like this ever is? 2nd story of the house, below freezing temps, but we managed a great day and like I said, 100% success. We believe we solved some other issues while up there as well, based on some of the water marks and black spots we noticed. This airflow is going to make a world of difference to the life of the roof on this very nice home.

All it will take is a little bit of paint, and you’ll never know we were there, however, the benefits to these clients will be many and will be long lasting!

The other major project we are working on is a garage renovation. Nothing crazy, just some re-organization, mud and paint along with new drainage and an epoxy floor.

Here is the before shot of the floor while doing a water test to see where it flows, so we can install the new drain in the right spot.

This is just after we cut open the floor to install the new passive drain.

Here is the after, just as we finished rolling on the epoxy. Note the new drain as well! That epoxy is some tough stuff. Dad got a bit on his arm 4 days ago and it still looks brand new , even after all sorts of scrubbing!

 

Stay tuned for the overall before and after of the Garage! It’s impressive.