Finished Attic No Ventilation

Your attic has a climate of its own.

Finished attic no ventilation.

Helping to keep humidity at or below 60 humidity. When the attic becomes part of the home to be heated and cooled open wall gable vents and roof vents are no longer feasible but the underside of the roof the sheathing and rafters can still get. Bring one or more ducts depending on the size of the attic space of conditioned air into the attic space. Screw down into joists at 3 foot 0 91 m 91 44 cm intervals using wood screws.

This is called passive ventilation. Cut sub floor panels to the appropriate size and install them over the joist beams. For maximum comfort create a separate zone within your hvac system for the finished space. You re not trying to heat cool the space just condition it.

What you have is likely an issue with improper ductwork that isn t returning hot air from the attic efficiently the temperature buildup is caused by a combination of stack effects hot air rises and the inability to get this hot air back down to the air conditioner to be cooled. This creates a natural air flow by drawing in the air from outside pushing it up and out through the vent at the top of the house. The most common way to add ventilation to an attic is by installing air intakes in the soffits and putting an outlet at the gable of the house. Without baffles blinders that prevent outside air from crossing over the vent a ridge vent may create almost no ventilation at all.

What you need is not venting as this attic is conditioned space it s inside the house control envelope in other words. Lay a sub floor if necessary. Most codes require a specified minimum amount of headroom and it s tough to meet this requirement when insulating a finished attic especially since most codes require insulation equal to r 38 or more. Without properly ventilating the roof your finished space can be just as unpleasant as an unfinished attic.

Gable vents may circulate air through only a small percentage of your attic. To meet all three goals insulating your finished attic ventilating the roof and maximizing headroom use a combination of dense batt insulation rigid foam sheeting and air chutes. There s a chance you ll need to enlarge the system if your attic wasn t heated or cooled previously so call in a pro to make sure it s up to snuff. Warmer in both summer and winter if it s well insulated.

Since parts of a finished attic are usually very close to the roof insulation often blocks proper ventilation that is needed under a roof structure.