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Old 01-20-2020, 11:09 AM   #21
Raekwon
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It's probably an air flow issue. Start with making sure your insulation is not covering the soffit vents. There should be air moving from the soffits to the peak of the roof. You may need to add some whirly birds or a ridge vent and insulation baffles to create the air flow you need. There are companies in Calgary that specialize in Attic Rain. Call one of those guys maybe.
I will check out the soffit tonight, I read on another site that if heat is getting in adding a whirly won't help as it will just pull more heated air up. Looking on facebook yesterday and today its seems like a huge issue for many people.

Only sources of heat I can think of are bathroom vents but they should be sealed will check anyway, Attic hatch which has terrible insulation just a couple of sheets laying on top hopefully staying on as you close it in its super tight space, or wire tubes running from the basement I believe and they are sealed with tape but I can see condensation inside them also.
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Old 01-20-2020, 01:16 PM   #22
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I had a couple of these max vents installed in 2017 after ice was forming in my attic following a renovation. Erased the problem. Was $700 for the vents and installation if that helps at all.
Who did your install?
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Old 01-20-2020, 01:18 PM   #23
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I had absolutely brutal “attic rain” in my 3 year old 2-story last year. It turns out my attic access which is in our walk in closet right off our en-suite wasn’t sealed worth a crap.

I added new weather stripping to it and put an old 30lbs dumbbell on top of it to add some extra pressure to seal it up and no issues this year expect a small area where the dryer vent’s warm air was seeping through the soffit and caused a little frost.

Might be worth getting an infrared thermometer and standing in the attic to check for hot spots, that’s how I found my issues.
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Old 01-20-2020, 01:22 PM   #24
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Who did your install?
The company that did my renovation subbed it out to a roofer he uses. I'm not sure who did the actual work. I posted the price just to give a frame of reference, but I think any roofer can do it.
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Old 01-20-2020, 02:05 PM   #25
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Originally Posted by Raekwon View Post
I will check out the soffit tonight, I read on another site that if heat is getting in adding a whirly won't help as it will just pull more heated air up. Looking on facebook yesterday and today its seems like a huge issue for many people.

Only sources of heat I can think of are bathroom vents but they should be sealed will check anyway, Attic hatch which has terrible insulation just a couple of sheets laying on top hopefully staying on as you close it in its super tight space, or wire tubes running from the basement I believe and they are sealed with tape but I can see condensation inside them also.

So the attic ventilation is actually really important not so much to prevent the issue but to dry the attic air faster so the problem doesn't present as water leaking into your house. You will never get a proper air tights seal separating your interior house warm zone from your attic cold zone. Every pin hole in the vapour barrier is like 4 cups of water over a season. And you have two pin holes where every staple went in holding your poly to your wood. It's not super realistic to "fill holes" unless you're re building the house with acoustic seal on every structural element and tape over every joint. You can fill any big gaps like lights and fans and outlets but the real key is getting air transferred in and out of the attic as quickly and as much as possible. Also a heat recover ventilator is helpful in lessening the air pressure from the house to the attic. A dehumidifier if you can manage it will help too.
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Old 01-20-2020, 02:49 PM   #26
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I would suspect that even if you add ridge cap vents or a whirly vent it is going to pull most of the flow from the soffits (as it is designed) and not simply vacuum more hot/moist air out from the house. I'd be shocked if that actually materially changed how much air leakage occurs; especially since the house should be "close" to a closed system.
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Old 01-20-2020, 03:09 PM   #27
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OMG!WTF! View Post
It's probably an air flow issue. Start with making sure your insulation is not covering the soffit vents. There should be air moving from the soffits to the peak of the roof. You may need to add some whirly birds or a ridge vent and insulation baffles to create the air flow you need. There are companies in Calgary that specialize in Attic Rain. Call one of those guys maybe.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gundo View Post
I had absolutely brutal “attic rain” in my 3 year old 2-story last year. It turns out my attic access which is in our walk in closet right off our en-suite wasn’t sealed worth a crap.

I added new weather stripping to it and put an old 30lbs dumbbell on top of it to add some extra pressure to seal it up and no issues this year expect a small area where the dryer vent’s warm air was seeping through the soffit and caused a little frost.

Might be worth getting an infrared thermometer and standing in the attic to check for hot spots, that’s how I found my issues.
This makes a bunch of sense, the access is in my "office" which is warm all the time from my computer and the weak sealing of the hatch. I think adding a nice solar powered whirly and better sealing/insulating of the hatch should fix it.

Thanks everyone.
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Old 01-20-2020, 03:24 PM   #28
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You don't even need a powered whirly, mine gives 'er most of the time on it's own.
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Old 01-20-2020, 03:26 PM   #29
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You don't even need a powered whirly, mine gives 'er most of the time on it's own.
Is it noisy AF? That's why I went with the max vents...couldn't stand the thought of losing one wink of sleep to a whirling dervish.
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Old 01-20-2020, 03:32 PM   #30
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I haven't heard a peep from it ever, inside or outside the house. What part would make noise?
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Old 01-20-2020, 04:58 PM   #31
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I haven't heard a peep from it ever, inside or outside the house. What part would make noise?
A loud whirly bird is like constant squeaking as it spins. Like a squeaky wheel on a shopping cart. My old neighbour had one and it drove me nuts. I think eventually they all start doing it, but that could be a decade away and not something to worry about until it happens.
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Old 01-20-2020, 05:05 PM   #32
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Mine is, I think 13 or so years old. I guess if it ever made a noise I'd blast it so full of lube it would think it was at...ok, well you get the point. If that didn't shut it up, I'd just replace it. Fortunately I have a bungalow, so roof work isn't all that sketchy.
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Old 01-21-2020, 04:41 PM   #33
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I've discovered that I'm in this situation. My daughter swamped our bathroom about a month ago and I had water leaking from a light fixture and an in-ceiling speaker. I hadn't gotten around to re-installing the speaker after drying things out and over the cold snap found water dripping from the hole when I ran the laundry. The main plumbing vent seemed to be condensing and dripping, so when I went up to the attic I found condensation lots of the OSB. Figure that I need more ventilation as the soffit vents don't seem to be cutting it.
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Old 01-21-2020, 10:16 PM   #34
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I've discovered that I'm in this situation. My daughter swamped our bathroom about a month ago and I had water leaking from a light fixture and an in-ceiling speaker. I hadn't gotten around to re-installing the speaker after drying things out and over the cold snap found water dripping from the hole when I ran the laundry. The main plumbing vent seemed to be condensing and dripping, so when I went up to the attic I found condensation lots of the OSB. Figure that I need more ventilation as the soffit vents don't seem to be cutting it.
Condensation is the result of warm, conditioned air entering the cold attic. You might be able to reduce it with additional attic ventilation, but usually fixing the problem requires better sealing off the warm air from entering in the first place.
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Old 01-26-2020, 10:36 AM   #35
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Ok update,

Got up in the attic and checked the fan enclosures and they weren’t sealed very good but not terrible, the duct at the roof of one was half assed. Master bedroom fan duct has a good litre or two of water in it but between the duct and the outer insulation not sure how it got in there or how to remove it.

Very obvious I need better ventilation it was +6 yesterday and I was reading temps of +12-20 in the attic but we did have the hatch open for a while working up there.
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Old 01-26-2020, 10:57 AM   #36
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Master bedroom fan duct has a good litre or two of water in it but between the duct and the outer insulation not sure how it got in there or how to remove it.
Wait....what? Am I misinterpreting this or do have a litre or two of water in the ducting from your exhaust fan to the roof cap? It.....shouldn't have any water in it, let alone that much. Sure you'll get a touch of buildup in the extreme cold temps when the most air condenses on the cold pipe, but generally it should evaporate as you run the fan.

Couple suggestions:
- Insulate pipe better
- Swap pipe from metal to a PVC pipe (I use rigid PVC drain pipe).
- Run fan longer after showers to help dry the line out (consider a fan timer)

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Very obvious I need better ventilation it was +6 yesterday and I was reading temps of +12-20 in the attic but we did have the hatch open for a while working up there.
Well, even if you had the hatch open, with proper ventilation it would ideally keep the attic close to the ambient temperature. So ya, I'd say your conclusion is correct.
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Old 01-26-2020, 11:30 AM   #37
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Yeah this fan had the biggest gap in the plastic housing it’s just odd that it’s in the outer layer. We do have a timer and run the fan all the time but when this started last week I didn’t run it for a few days thinking it was part of the issue. There is such a huge difference in the surrounding houses on how many attic vent they have I thought it would be fairly standard. Oh well solar or whirly should do it I’m getting someone to do it ASAP and probably two to be safe.
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