Your homes attic is more than just a place to store old clothes and Christmas decorations. A homes attic is necessary for the home to prevent excessive heat from coming through the roof and into your home. In essence, this little space traps the hot air and heat, creating a protective barrier that prevents your home from absorbing the heat of the sun. An attic also is used to prevent ice dam build up in the winter. No matter if you have a small attic or a large one, your Springfield, Virginia’s roof may require serious roof repair if your attics air isn’t properly ventilated. Use this guide to attic ventilation and find out for yourself whether or not your homes attic needs more ventilation than it already has.

More than any other season during the year, the summer takes a heavy toll on an asphalt shingle roof. With plenty of sunshine and high temperatures to match, the Northern Virginia summer weather can quickly build up interior attic temperatures to well over 150 degrees. This can not only trap hot attic temperatures making air conditioning systems run inefficiently and struggle to keep up, hot attic temperatures can also damage roofing materials permanently causing an expensive roof repair or even worse—a total roof replacement. When excessive attic temperatures are allowed to accumulate and left unabated, they can cause the shingles above to warp and curl under the stress. Excessive heat can also cause nails to work their way out of shingles, making instant roof leaks.

Just because it’s cold outside, doesn’t mean that you want heat trapped in your attic. While it may seem like a good idea to keep temperatures high in the attic when you’re heating the space below, in fact, it’s a very bad thing and here’s why. As warm air currents flow up the underside of the roof, they cause the shingles to heat up. When snow has accumulated on the shingles, they warm and melt the bottom layer of the snow, causing a trickle of water to flow down the roof towards the drip edge. Once the water reaches the cooler edge, the cold temperatures refreeze the water to form an ice dam. As continual water flow causes the ice dam to get bigger, water can be forced under shingles and back into the home to cause a roof leak.

There are numerous ways to ventilate your attic space properly. The most common of these attic ventilation techniques is a ridge vent. A ridge vent is attached to the top of the home along its peak or ridge. This is one of the most efficient ways to ventilate an attic space because it uses hot airs natural ability to rise to ventilate the space. Another attic vent that is commonly employed in many Springfield, VA. home's is a gable end vent. These are installed into the side of a gable end to help remove excess hot air from the attic space. While it’s important to remove heat through the top or sides of the home, it’s also important for the cooler air to enter the attic space through soffit ventilation and insulation batts.

Whether you’re hiring professional roofers or you do the attic inspection yourself, if you suspect that your attic ventilation is not in order, an attic inspection is a must. When inspecting an attic for the proper ventilation, there are a few signs you need to look for to help you find out if your attic ventilation is doing its job or not. If you see any of the following signs in your attic, don’t wait before problems get worse. Call us today at (703)303-8546 or fill out the box to your left and we’ll send our crew of professional roofers to inspect your attic and provide you with a detailed estimate of your attic ventilation repair. Check out our roofing contractor’s reviews and you’ll see why Roof.net is the best roof repair and replacement company in Springfield, Virginia.

·         Cupped Shingles - In some cases, cupped shingles may be a sign that asphalt shingles are past their prime. In other cases, it can be a signal that attic ventilation is not doing a good job.

·         Moisture - Water in the attic is a big problem. Water droplets can be a sure sign that your attic ventilation isn’t working correctly.

·         Mold - If you see any signs of mold or mildew in the attic space, it can be a sign that attic ventilation isn’t properly removing warm air and moisture from your attic. Black mold can cause serious health problems and should be dealt with immediately upon discovery.