Finished Attic No Ventilation

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.

Finished attic no ventilation.

Warmer in both summer and winter if it s well insulated. Helping to keep humidity at or below 60 humidity. Bring one or more ducts depending on the size of the attic space of conditioned air into the attic space. Without properly insulating your finished attic room will also be cold in the winter.

Without properly ventilating the roof your finished space can be just as unpleasant as an unfinished attic. 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. The majority of roofing experts agree that ridge vents are the most effective and cost effective roof vents available. Gable vents may circulate air through only a small percentage of your attic.

This is called passive ventilation. Without baffles blinders that prevent outside air from crossing over the vent a ridge vent may create almost no ventilation at all. 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. 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. 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. 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. Most attics will need a sub floor to be laid that you can build on top of.

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. Cut sub floor panels to the appropriate size and install them over the joist beams. 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. 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.

For maximum comfort create a separate zone within your hvac system for the finished space.