Attic/ventilation fan help

[redmile04]

I noticed a weird texture around my bathroom fan, it is not mould but definitely discolored and the drywall is deteriorating around my ventilation fan. I emailed my Heating and cooling guy:

Hello, It appears that moisture from the bathroom fan may be freezing and then dripping back down. We recommend contacting the company that handles attic-related concerns. This is usually something to do with the ventilation or the insulation.

Does anyone have any recommendations or contacts for attic related concerns/insulation? It is a 2021 home and do not want the problem to get worse. I am always using the fan during showers and opening windows when i can.

Thanks!

[EldrickOnIce]

Any home that recent should have no ventilation issues, if everything was done correctly.
You should have soffit abd ridge vents. There should be insulation baffles to keep air flow open from soffit vents. Your exhaust fans should vent to exterior, but you won't be able to see them as they will be buried in the insulation.
Somebody needs to check all of these things. I don't know who that is.

[Fuzz]

I think you'd want to look up building envelope services, specific to homes(not condos etc). You may also want to check with your builder. Some, like Shane Homes offers a 7 year envelope warranty. Well, they claim they do.


https://www.shanehomes.com/our-blog/...home-builders/

[Flacker]

Something between the exhaust vent and roof vent isn't insulated properly.

Warm surface, in a freezing cold attic space soon causes condensation that freezes, and will then thaw during the next warm spell. Builders are cheap as hell these days, and pretty sloppy in areas the consumer doesn't see.

The exhaust ducting may not have been attached to the roof vent at all, maybe there is no duct, wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.

[RichieRich]

Originally Posted by Flacker

Something between the exhaust vent and roof vent isn't insulated properly.

Warm surface, in a freezing cold attic space soon causes condensation that freezes, and will then thaw during the next warm spell. Builders are cheap as hell these days, and pretty sloppy in areas the consumer doesn't see.

The exhaust ducting may not have been attached to the roof vent at all, maybe there is no duct, wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.

I was gonna say the same thing. If you can get into your attic (usually as simple as a ladder and climb up and VERY carefully make sure you only walk on the trusses, you can go look at your bathroom fan hose. Odds are some insulation may have moved away. Hopefully there isn't a loop or "u" shape in the exhaust hose causing water accumulation and eventually some overflow. The latter is exactly what happened to us.


The other thing is if you have an air humidifier in your home is to turn it down or off until spring to reduce accumulation, and to also run your bathroom fan for a while after any bath/shower.

[Shazam]

The angle of the ducting to the roof is probably too steep, which will cause condensed water to drip down onto the ceiling.

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by RichieRich

I was gonna say the same thing. If you can get into your attic (usually as simple as a ladder and climb up and VERY carefully make sure you only walk on the trusses, you can go look at your bathroom fan hose. Odds are some insulation may have moved away. Hopefully there isn't a loop or "u" shape in the exhaust hose causing water accumulation and eventually some overflow. The latter is exactly what happened to us.


The other thing is if you have an air humidifier in your home is to turn it down or off until spring to reduce accumulation, and to also run your bathroom fan for a while after any bath/shower.

The U is common practice to keep condensation from running back down into the fan.

[Huntingwhale]

I believe it is called attic rain. Our home inspector brought it up when we bought our home a few years ago. He took me up and showed me where the condensation was building up, where it originated from, and what had to happen to seal it off. We had a list for the owners of things to fix and this was one of them.

I pulled up the old repair email and this was the scope of work:

Spoiler!

It was all organized by our previous owner, looks like it was repaired by Leading Edge Calgary

[RichieRich]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

The U is common practice to keep condensation from running back down into the fan.

Our home humidity was also too high, plus the routing of the exhaust hose, plus the way the U was set up all contributed to our issue. But the biggest thing IMO was the too high home humidity as we experienced the attic rain and a couple other ceiling spots where there was poor insulation.

[EldrickOnIce]

Originally Posted by RichieRich

I was gonna say the same thing. If you can get into your attic (usually as simple as a ladder and climb up and VERY carefully make sure you only walk on the trusses, you can go look at your bathroom fan hose. Odds are some insulation may have moved away. Hopefully there isn't a loop or "u" shape in the exhaust hose causing water accumulation and eventually some overflow. The latter is exactly what happened to us.


The other thing is if you have an air humidifier in your home is to turn it down or off until spring to reduce accumulation, and to also run your bathroom fan for a while after any bath/shower.

Current building standard for attic insulation is R60 in AB. It may not have been quite that high in 2021 (OP build date) but when you have 2 feet of blown in insulation, there is no walking on it, or not easily anyway. I definitely would not go walking up there anyway. And you won't find the ducting for your exhaust fans. They are buried.
Pitch shouldn't be an issue either, or at least it's not here, as in newer construction fans exhaust through exterior wall vents, not through roof vents.

[Shazam]

Holy #### really? They finally changed that??

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by Shazam

Holy #### really? They finally changed that??

Insulation requirements in all assemblies went up significantly in the 2019 Energy Code.

[RichieRich]

I've been considering getting additional insulation blown into our attic space. It's definitely settled in the 20+ years since the house was built. Anyone have recommendations for who is decent, good value, and/or who to avoid?