Insulated Attic Soffits

Attic hatch or door.

Insulated attic soffits.

Insulation often clogs the space between the rafters blocking air from traveling to and from the soffit area. It can do both. Best ventilation is open soffit venting to a open vented ridge vent. Pull down stair or ladder.

Add weatherstripping around the perimeter and a sweep to the door of a walk up attic. Install air chutes or clear them if they re clogged photo 1. On a positive note congratulations on having 24 inch eaves. Affix rigid foam insulation to the attic side of the hatch or door.

Insulating and venting when there is no roof soffit. In most residential homes the soffit and associated vents is the structural part of the roof that hangs over the side of the home. Use a zippered insulated tent to keep the enclosure draft free attic tent at 7 attic cover insulator 120. She asked me to go into the attic to find the roof leaks or where the snow is blowing in through the soffits.

I found instead a vintage 3 ton ac unit with 1 rigid insulation taped all over it and insulated flex duct snaking all over the poorly insulated attic. The soffit vents are now installed but you still need to make sure there s no insulation blocking the new vents. Insulation at least r 38 or more is there for heating and. The answer is rafter venting.

The rigid insulation was saturated from condensation. The principle behind soffits is to allow air to circulate in and around the attic. The photograph at left shows severe mold on the underside of roof sheathing in a 1920 s cape cod attic where there was no under roof ventilation. No your soffits should not be insulated and there is a chance that your insulation has been damaged by this.

Five common causes of poor attic venting. Ridge vent must me installed per the manufactures instructions. In looking around the attic i see that the area above the soffits was completely filled in with some extra blown in insulation that was added some years ago by a previous owner. If there s blown in insulation like ours rake back the fluffy stuff with a 3 or 4 ft long 1 x 6 or use a garden rake or hoe.

Rafter vents or insulation baffles install in any rafter space to create narrow gaps that direct fresh air from the soffit vents to the peak of the roof. Aluminum or vinyl soffits eaves installed over plywood soffits that don t have venting holes.