What is Attic Ventilation and why is it so important?

Attic ventilation plays a role in the preservation of your roof and keeping your home energy-efficient. When it comes time to replace your roof, it makes sense to look at your attic ventilation system to ensure it's doing its bit to protect your home. 

Since sunlight and extreme temperatures can affect the life of your shingles, it's important to ensure your attic is properly ventilated. Like Goldilocks, too much or too little ventilation may cause issues that will increase your heating and cooling costs and affect your roof negatively. When you get a new roof, the manufacturer of the shingles you choose recommends the proper ventilation to ensure a long life. At Erin's Roofing, we follow the manufacturer's requirements to maximize the durability of your new roof.

There are several benefits to proper (or "just right") attic ventilation. Proper venting will help with cooling costs: by removing the hot air out of the attic, your air conditioning system becomes more efficient. By removing moisture from the attic, ventilation also helps to minimize mold from growing. 

Lastly, ventilation helps prevent ice dams from forming. Ice dams are caused by a combination of excessive snow load on the roof and inadequate attic insulation and ventilation.The heat in your house during the winter rises into the attic and warms the closest layer of snow sitting on the roof. As the snow melts and flows down the roof, the water refreezes at the edge of the roof (since it is now away from the heat source). Then more water comes down after it and also freezes. The process repeats itself until you have a large buildup of ice sitting in your eaves and gutters, putting your roof at risk.

When Erin's Roofing installs roof replacements, rest assured that we check the ventilation systems and make recommendations that will help keep your home energy-efficient and extend the life of your roof!