If you’ve ever noticed mould or condensation on the ceiling in your home, it may be due to bad ventilation. Ventilation is vital to keeping your home cool in summer, dry in winter and pest-free all year round. Find out how ventilation will improve your home, and how to achieve it.
Your roof cavity.
Many people don’t give what lies between their exterior roof and their house ceiling a lot of thought. In reality, however, this area of your home is very important. It contains insulation, your air conditioning ducting, and often dictates how the outside weather effects your inside home living experience.
Dangers of a poorly ventilated roof:
In Summer
Effective ventilation of your roof cavity is vital. If your roof is not properly ventilated, it will be subject to overheating in hot months. Hot air trapped in the roof cavity will affect indoor temperatures and cause your air conditioning to work harder than necessary. This results in increased electricity bills. If you have a metal or dark coloured roof, these tend to attract more heat. It is particularly necessary to install a ventilation system for these roofs to keep the air flowing.
In Winter
When you have the heating cranked in winter to stave off those chilly nights, you may not realise what’s actually going on in your roof. Heat rises from your ceiling insulation into your roof cavity and hits the cold creeping in from the outside. This causes condensation as the hot air reaches the top of the roof cavity. This condensation moistens the wooden beams keeping your roof upright, gradually rotting and destabilising them.
If the condensation drips into your ceiling insulation, then you’re facing even more problems. Damp insulation is ineffective and can cause mould to grow, and mildew to form on your ceiling. Not only will you be landed with a freezing house in the middle of winter, but the structural integrity of your ceiling will be compromised. This is very difficult to fix once it has been stained.
Pests
It’s no secret that damp, sheltered spaces attract a variety of unwanted pests. Roofs are a common hideout for possums, rodents and termites. In winter especially, roof cavities provide shelter for these pests from the harsh weather outside and are optimum environments for them to breed in. Avoid attracting pests to your home by keeping all of the beams and wooden structures dry. Install a venting system that uses grills to prevent pests from finding their way into open cavities.
Queue whirlybirds!
Everyone has noticed whirlybirds happily whizzing away on roofs all over Australia. These aren’t just to look pretty, though. Whirlybirds are an integral part of roof ventilation systems that assist in air flow in roof cavities to keep the space dry and cool. They suck hot air out and allow cool air to make its way in, regulating the temperature so that condensation does not occur. However, whirlybirds work best as a part of a larger ventilation system, including eave vents and ceiling grilles. Whether or not you have insulation installed in your home will also impact the effectiveness of a whirlybird.
Contact a professional roofing company such as Reno Saver to discuss the best ventilation systems for your roof. Install ventilation before winter to avoid mould and mildew from entering your home!
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<embed><img src=”https://renosaver.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/roof-ventilation-infographic-03.png” alt=”” width=”600″ height=”2035″ class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-4104″ /><br />Is Your Roof Properly Ventilated? –
Infographic was created by the <a href=”https://renosaver.com.au/”>Reno Saver</a>Team.</embed>