When you need to replace your roof, your focus may be on choosing the right type of material and color to fit your needs, but you can’t forget about the roofing vents. Roofing vents are essential for many reasons, but most of all, roofing vents help prevent damage to your roof that could lead to you having to replace the whole thing all over again!
Properly venting your roof can prevent damaging occurrences like ice dams, notes Family Handyman. Ice dams form at the edge of your roof after it has snowed when parts of your roof reach a warmer temperature, allowing the water to form and trickle to the roof edges where the water refreezes as ice. This causes water and ice to become trapped under your shingles, and in extreme cases, it can even allow water to leak into your attic or further into your home. Not only could you experience damage to your home and possessions, but the water trapped under the shingles will eventually cause the roof to rot.
To prevent ice dams, all you need to do is make sure your attic stays an appropriate temperature, says Popular Mechanics. Factors that affect the temperatures in your attic space include the thickness and quality of your insulation and having roofing vents installed and clear of debris, allowing extreme temperature differences to balance out through the exchange of air. These vents will bring in the cool outside air and allow warm air to escape from your home as needed, moderating temperatures internally without allowing the roof to warm up.
You’ll need to install about one square foot of venting per every 300 square feet of attic floor space, so if you have quite a large home, you’ll need a lot of vents. The vents should also be spaced out on the roof – some high and some low – to maximize ventilation.
But don’t worry: if you need to have roof vents installed in your roof and you’re not quite sure where to start, the experts at Ivy Lea Construction are here to help. Call us today at 716-875-8654, and we’ll answer any questions you may have on roof vents. For even more information about your roof, check out our roofing page.