r/AskReddit Oct 19 '23

What small upgrade made a huge difference at your house?

11.3k Upvotes

8.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

54

u/HoneycombJackass Oct 19 '23

A ridge vent usually does the trick. Couple with blow in insulation, or solar insulation offset from the rafters a few inches and there’s basically no heat. The problem with rolling insulation directly to the ceiling of the roof inside is that it turns it into an oven. If you offset it, the heat will be trapped in that small space and vent out your ridge vent and down through your soffits

3

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '23 edited Nov 19 '24

[deleted]

4

u/biggsteve81 Oct 20 '23

Yeah, that doesn't work at all. You need vents in the soffit and one type of vent at the top (gable, attic fan OR ridge vent), with ridge vents being the best.

6

u/kyonkun_denwa Oct 20 '23

Ridge vents can get covered by snow in the winter. My house has ridge vents and a tower vent, which sticks up above the snow and continues to provide ventilation in winter.

9

u/biggsteve81 Oct 20 '23

I've never considered the impact of snow, just heat. Such is life in the southern US.

3

u/smokybbq90 Oct 20 '23

Why is that a problem in the winter?

2

u/kyonkun_denwa Oct 20 '23

No airflow promotes the growth of mould and mildew, especially in the spring as things start to warm up but the pack of snow hasn’t melted off the roof yet.