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HOME JULY 2021 6 D ear Jim: It gets very hot in my attic. I don't think the two end vents are enough. What types of additional attic vents are effective and how much more should I add? — Sheila F. Dear Sheila: A hot attic increases your air-conditioning costs and makes attic and roof materials deteriorate faster than they should. Having just a vent in each side of the gable was the typical attic ventilation configuration in older houses, but today it is considered woefully inadequate for an efficient house. Even with enough insulation on the attic floor, extreme attic heat transfers through the insulation to the ceiling below. What makes things worse is all the structural lumber in the attic also reaches 140 degrees by afternoon. With its thermal mass, it can stay hot well into the evening and continu- ally transfer heat into your house. People often think of attic ventilation as being important only during summer when a typical dark asphalt shingle roof can eas- ily reach 170 degrees. It is also important during winter. No matter how well the vapor barriers were installed in your walls and ceiling, indoor air and water vapor get into the attic. When it is cold and this moisture-laden air is allowed to collect in the attic and, even in relatively mild climates, it can con- dense on the lumber and drip onto the insulation. The R-value of insulation is much lower when it is damp so more heat is lost through the ceiling during winter. In cold climates where the temperature often drops below freezing at night, it is even more important to ventilate the attic to keep the roof cold. If warm air from the ceiling below stagnates near the roof peak, it can melt snow on the roof. This water runs down the roof to a cooler area and refreezes causing an ice dam. Over time this dam causes water to back up under the shingles and leak into the attic and destroy the lumber. Its weight can also damage the gutters. The ideal ventilation flow is coming in low over the insulation keeping it dry and cool. Some of it should flow up under the roof sheathing to keep it cooler and then exhaust out near the peak of the roof. This air flow out the roof peak keeps it cooler during summer and much colder during winter to minimize condensation and ice dam formation. There are various attic venting options and all of them are better than your gable vents. A combination of a ridge vent and soffit vents is most effective and not diffi- cult to install yourself. Once you install proper new attic ventilation, you should block off the gable vents because they will interfere with the desired air flow. I stapled extra attic foil over my gable vents to block them. The ridge vent is located the roof peak where the hot attic air is least dense so it naturally flows up and out. In addition to this, breezes over the top of the ridge vent cover create a low pressure area to draw even more air through the attic. The cool air is drawn in the soffit vents. This can be as effective as power vents which consume electricity. Before you run out and buy vents, first calculate how much ventilation you need. This is measured by the net free vent area of the particular vent product you select. The net free vent area is marked on the packaging. It is always less than the actual area of the vent because of screening and other obstructions to the air flow inside the vent. Measure the area of the attic floor. A typ- ical rule of thumb is one square foot of net free vent area of each 150 square feet of attic floor area is needed. This amount of vent area should be divided evenly between the ridge vent and the inlet soffit vents. I installed multiple 4-by-16-inch soffit vents. Check inside the attic to be sure the insula- tion is not blocking the soffit vents. If nec- essary, attach small baffles to keep the insulation from blocking them. For example, if your attic floor area is 30 by 50 feet, you would need 5 square feet of net free vent area in the ridge vent and the same amount in the soffit vents. If you choose to run the ridge vent all the way across the roof because it looks better, even if it is more ventilation than you actually need, match it with the proper amount of inlet soffit vents. Depending upon how much inlet soffit vent area you need and the depth of your soffits, you may find it easiest to install continuous lengths of under-eve soffit vent. This is less time consuming than sawing many small rectangular holes and installing individual soffit vents. To install the ridge vent, saw a slot along the roof ridge with a circular saw. Based upon how much free vent area is needed, determine the vent length needed. A typi- cal 1-foot-wide ridge vent provides 18 square inched of net free vent area per lin- eal foot. Dear Jim: My old house has real plaster walls. I want to remove the wallpaper and paint a light color so the room is brighter without lamps. What is the best way to remove the wallpaper? — Judy K. Dear Judy: On most walls, a steamer makes the job easy, but be careful on old plaster walls. Test the steam method in an obscure corner to make sure it does not damage the old plaster. Another method is to lightly spray the wall with warm water from a weed-type pump sprayer. To speed up the job, most hardware stores sell enzyme-based stripper additives to break down the old adhesive faster. (Send inquiries to James Dulley, Freeman, 6906 Royalgreen Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45244 or visit www.dulley.com.) JAMES DULLEY Every attic needs to vent, properly James Dulley Install half of the required vent area in soffit vents. These are 4-by-16-inch vents. James Dulley After the mesh ridge vent is attached over the ridge, wide shingles are tacked over the top.

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