Attic Questions

[Raekwon]

After having water drip on my head in the bathroom from the fan in our new house I poked my head into the attic to look for obvious signs of issues. Nothing glaring stands out so I'm leaning towards condensation. The venting seems to be properly insulated but the attic is running at about 0c so there is probably still a chance from the vent but could be the fan box itself.

Question is can you and should you insulate the roof of the attic in a normal 2 storey small space attic, it has the usual blown in insulation on the base but I'm not sure if 0c is low for an attic and what my options would be.

[GoinAllTheWay]

Attics are supposed to be almost the same temperature as the outside air.

Your water dripping issue was almost certainly from condensation. The tubing leading from your ceiling fan through the attic to your roof needs to be insulated. Yours is, but it may need checking to make sure there are no open gaps. Hot moist air from your bathroom meeting the colder air in the attic is causing the condensation.

No point in insulating the ceiling of your attic. Air is supposed to circulate from your soffits along the lower edge of your roof line, through your attic and out through the whirly birds on the top of your roof.

[Shazam]

^ What he said.

If you want, get some fiberglass insulation and plop a batt or two on top of the fans. Also seal your attic entrance and make sure that box is well insulated and has proper vapour barrier (often they have no VB on them).

[Raekwon]

Ok looks like it might be a gap in the fan box and the ceiling causing it, also yeah no vapor barrier over the attic hatch. Thanks guys.

[Sliver]

Make sure the ducting doesn't run straight up to the outlet vent. It needs to be loose/long enough that it lays downhill for a good 12" before going up and out. This gives a place for condensation to pool and evaporate out instead of dropping back through the fan.

[me_dennis]

You could also run the ceiling fan for at least 15 mins after a shower or you could get a timer switch for the ceiling fan


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[Raekwon]

Originally Posted by me_dennis

You could also run the ceiling fan for at least 15 mins after a shower or you could get a timer switch for the ceiling fan


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That is the weird part, no showers or baths taken in this bathroom. Hot steamy du. . . .well its not used for washing. I filled the gaps between the fan box and the ceiling only time will tell now.

[Wormius]

I went through this too in a bathroom that literally wasn’t being used for anything. The moisture in the air was just condensing in the duct and freezing. I went up one winter to check and I felt the ice cringe inside the flexible duct work. I just put a bit of a bend in the dusting and I haven’t observed any problems since then. The only thing is hopefully the amount of condensation inside doesn’t exceed the ability of it to evaporate when it warms up. The duct is pretty sturdy though so it hopefully won’t become heavy with water and collapse or something.

You can check the home improvement thread for some pictures I posted of my situation.

[Raekwon]

So after spraying a bunch of spray foam in the cracks beside the housing and the drywall we are still getting drips. I stuck my head up again and moved the insulation and the vent duct does run about 4 feet sideways before connecting to the vent and the duct connects to the roof at an angle, one thing I noticed is that there is a clear plastic housing over the fan that the duct connects to, seems like a prime place for condensation to gather, also noticed another empty wire tube that is taped off with condensation inside of it. Now what is causing it . .

[Calgary14]

Bump; does anyone have whirly birds in their attic to vent out the hot air? I was told a while ago Calgary is too windy for them but wouldnt that not affect their performance?

[Fuzz]

I have one, never had a problem. I'm in a bungalow though, so maybe they have issues in 2 story?

[Buff]

Originally Posted by Calgary14

Bump; does anyone have whirly birds in their attic to vent out the hot air? I was told a while ago Calgary is too windy for them but wouldnt that not affect their performance?

If Lethbridge isn't too windy for them then Calgary is most certainly not too windy for them!

I have two on my house and had one on my old house. I think every house on my street has them.

I used to hear one of them on a windy day. Haven't heard it since it was replaced when I had a new roof done last summer.

[Calgary14]

^Good to know! Do they make a difference in keeping the attic at a reasonable temperature in the summer months?

[Shin Pad]

I had one on a house I built in BC. I found it a bit noisy when it was really windy, but other than that it worked fine.

[dissentowner]

Pretty obvious at this point your house is haunted. You need to get out now!!!

[Buff]

Originally Posted by Calgary14

^Good to know! Do they make a difference in keeping the attic at a reasonable temperature in the summer months?

I don't recall going into my attic, ever. Aside from popping my head through the access for a quick looksee. Not enough for me to remember the temperature.

[Raekwon]

So after getting ripped off for $250 there are no issues on my roof and it all appears to be condensation in the attic which was really bad yesterday. Now I need to go up and figure out where the heat/moisture is getting into the attic.

[OMG!WTF!]

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.

[Ducay]

Ya, I ran into some minor attic rain last year, and now again last night with the temps finally coming up above freezing yesterday. I have great soffits but no vents in the peak, and with a house built in 1987 there is random hot/moist air clearly getting up there.

Was up in the attic 2 days ago (anticipated the issue) and ya, pretty much every piece of metal had frost accumulation on it. Luckily not much build-up on the OSB sheeting itself, which at least indicates I'm not getting grotesque amount of moisture up there.

I had a company look at it last year and they suggested some ridge vents or whirly's, but I was hoping the issue was a one off last year (never had it before), but clearly not. Think over the summer I'll be biting the bullet and having them installed.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Ducay

Ya, I ran into some minor attic rain last year, and now again last night with the temps finally coming up above freezing yesterday. I have great soffits but no vents in the peak, and with a house built in 1987 there is random hot/moist air clearly getting up there.

Was up in the attic 2 days ago (anticipated the issue) and ya, pretty much every piece of metal had frost accumulation on it. Luckily not much build-up on the OSB sheeting itself, which at least indicates I'm not getting grotesque amount of moisture up there.

I had a company look at it last year and they suggested some ridge vents or whirly's, but I was hoping the issue was a one off last year (never had it before), but clearly not. Think over the summer I'll be biting the bullet and having them installed.

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.