To maintain the energy efficiency, safety, and service life of your home's attic, it is important that your home maintenance program include the proper maintenance for your attic.

Attic vents are the mushroom-shaped circulating fans on your roof, and/or the openings you see on the side of your house near your roof.  These vents can become blocked by leaves, bird's nests, etc.  Your attic also contains "insulation", a fluffy material that reduces the transfer of heat, similar to the way a down coat keeps a person warm.  Insulation helps keep your home warm in the winter, and helps to keep your home cool in the winter.  Since heat rises, homes tend to lose heat through the roof, which is why attic insulation is important.  See also:  Pest Control, Roof, and Roof Gutters.

Shown in the "Maintenance" tab above are the recommended routine maintenance tasks for your home's attic. The "Questions / Answers" tab above shows our answers to related questions. And the "Articles" tab above provides links to related informational articles and sources.

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 Maintenance Task #1:  Check attic vents and fans

This task involves inspecting the vents, and cleaning out any obstructions.  You should also inspect the operation of your attic fan, if applicable.  If you have an attic fan, you should clean the fan blades thoroughly, and check that they turn freely.  If the fan is obstructed by leaves or bird's nests, you may have to climb on top of the roof to dislodge them.  If the fan motor has oil ports, then put a few drops of machine oil in each location.

 Maintenance Task #2:  Check attic for insulation movement

Your attic insulation should be inspected to ensure that it has not shifted out of place, and no openings have been created where heat can pass through.

Poorly placed insulation not only means your heating and cooling systems have to work harder (which costs you more money for energy and shortens their service lives), but also in snowy climates, heat loss to a roof can lead to the formation of ice dams on your roof which can cause water damage inside your home.

 Maintenance Task #3:  Check attic for leaks and pest openings

This task involves:

1. Inspecting the inside of your attic for evidence of water leaks;

2. Looking for any cracks or openings to the outside that would permit the entry of bats and other pests; 

3. Looking for any opening to the inside of your house where heat or cooling can escape.

Checking for leaks is to prevent serious water damage.  Checking for cracks and openings is to prevent infestation of pests.  Sealing openings to the outside inside of your house will help you conserve energy.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS from "Ask-a-Wizard":

QUESTION from M. Hart on 2/19/2008:

I found cracking paint high on an outside wall and a bubble on the ceiling right above. When I looked in the attic, I could see frost on the underside of the roof at that point and several others and found another ceiling bubble in another room. The roof is snow-free right now, but was this an ice dam issue? Do I need to have a roofer look at it? I have been thinking about increasing the insulation in the attic. Will this help?
Thanks for your time. -M. Hart

ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD.COM ON 2/19/2008:

Dear M. Hart:

A couple of questions:

When you say you saw cracking and bubbling on your ceilings, did you also see any evidence of staining from water?

Did you see large formations of icicles on edges of the sections of your roof near where you saw the problems with you ceilings?

And lastly, what sort of vents do you have for your roof / attic? Are they located in your soffits, roof edges, or gables?


Home-Wizard.com
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FOLLOW-UP COMMENT from M. Hart on 2/20/2008:

Please see below for my responses to your questions:

When you say you saw cracking and bubbling on your ceilings, did you also see any evidence of staining from water?   Response:  Around one of them, yes. The other hasn't cracked yet.

Did you see large formations of icicles on edges of the sections of your roof near where you saw the problems with you ceilings?   Response:  No.

And lastly, what sort of vents do you have for your roof / attic? Are they located in your soffits, roof edges, or gables?     Response:  Two near the ridge, only one one side, just below the gutter. As a matter of fact, that's about the only place I see icicles.


General info: small house, basement and slightly raised 1st floor, ~25 x 50 ft.


Thanks for your prompt response!


M. Hart

ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD.COM ON 2/20/2008:

Dear M. Hart:

From your description, it does not sound like a case of ice damming. But rather the frost you are seeing in the attic is likely due to water vapor from your house getting up into the attic and then during the winter this water vapor is condensing on the cold roof surfaces and then freezing. Then when the weather warms up, the frost thaws, and you have water dripping back into your house (which is likely causing the bubbling and paint cracking that you are seeing in your ceilings and upper walls). The source of the water vapor getting up into your attic must be found and stopped, otherwise you could be looking at significant problems with wood rot and mold formation.

There are two aspects to solving this problem: 1) closing off the so-called “attic bypasses”, that is, openings from your house to the attic where warm moist air can get up into your attic; and 2) reducing the high moisture levels in your home.

Regarding closing off “attic bypasses”, water vapor naturally wants to move upward and into the attic. You should inspect your attic floor and seal up any air leaks. And even if you have to pry up a few floorboards to do it, check around light fixtures and other penetrations in the ceiling. Use expanding polyurethane foam or other weatherproofing supplies to seal gaps. Also, you should inspect any ductwork that is running through your attic, and make sure it is adequately insulated, and there is no air leaking in from any of this ductwork. And if your house has been “balloon framed”, meaning that wall studs run all the way from foundation to roof eave, you may want to add blocking in stud bays to keep these cavities from being a channel for damp air to travel from your foundation up into your attic.

Regarding reducing high moisture levels in your home, example causes of high moisture levels in your home can include:
- Damp basements.
- Malfunctioning (or lack of) exhaust fans in the bathroom and kitchen for venting moisture to the outside of your home.
- Unvented gas or kerosene heating devices.
- Dryer vents that are not ducted to the outside of your home

Once you get all that warm, moist air out of your attic, the frost (and resulting condensation) should disappear. 

Just an additional note: adding more attic ventilation is not the right solution. Additional roof vents allow more air to escape from the attic and that pulls more warm moist air from the house into the attic. However, having adequate insulation in the attic floor can help.

Hope this is helpful.
Home-Wizard.com
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FOLLOW-UP COMMENT from M. Hart on 2/20/2008:

Thank you so much. This was very informative and specific and should be very helpful. I will print this out and create a checklist to follow up on.

ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD.COM ON 2/20/2008:

Dear M. Hart:

. . . thanks for the feedback.

Glad that we were able to be of assistance to you.

Regards,
Home-Wizard.com
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QUESTION from Cindy on 5/6/2008:

We have a room with a vaulted ceiling. Dark lines are starting to appear on the flat portion of the ceiling, next to the vaulted portion. The lines follow or outline the roof trusses. What can be causing this? If we paint over them, how do we know they will not come back?

ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD.COM ON 5/6/2008:

Dear Cindy:

It sounds like you have moisture leaking into your ceiling, and it is traveling along the ceiling joists, getting this area wet and likely attracting mold.

Because of the construction of vaulted ceilings, there are often number places where the roof lines intersect. And the places where the roof lines intersect they are covered with pieces of thin metal called "flashing". Over time (or if it was not installed properly), this flashing loosens up, and can allow water to come in through where the two sections of roofing meet. This could be where rain water is dripping into your ceiling, and then running down until it hits the ceiling joists.

The other possibility is that if there is not proper ventilation in your vaulted ceiling, and that when the warm moist air in your room meets the cold wood of your roof, that it causes moisture to condense out into your ceiling.

And yet another possibility is that, depending on the orientation of your roof lines (and the region of the country that you are in), that the moisture could be due to "ice damming", which is causing water to puddle on your roof, and then to seep into your ceiling under the shingles.

But to answer your question, yes, if these lines indeed are caused by mold due to moisture, then if you just paint over the dark lines they will keep coming back until you eliminate the source of the moisture.

You might want to start by talking with either a home inspector, or a qualified roofing contractor, who can inspect your particular situation and pinpoint the specific likely source of your moisture.

Hope this is helpful.
Home-Wizard.com
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QUESTION from johnmoore on 11/19/2008
We have an attic fan with temperture/humidity activation. The attic fan has been running constantly through the nights for the last several months (not sure about before that since this is a new house to us). 

It is November and the typical daytime temps are around 30-50F and night temps around 10-30F.

Concerned, I placed a remote temperature/humidity monitor in the attic. What I found was that the humidity shoots up into the nineties as the sun goes down setting off the fan. It remains this high until the late morning/early afternoon. The temperture is the same as the outside as the attic is soffett/gable vented. I have no idea why the humidity is getting so high at nightfall. 

Is it possible that the soffet is blocked? If so how would I check that and how could it get so humid in the attic when the indoor and outdoor humidity is below 40% or so? 

Thanks for any insight you can offer.
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ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD.COM on 11/19/2008
Dear John Moore:

There are three general reasons why humidity can become high in an attic: 1) poor ventilation; 2) improper insulation; and 3) heated air from living areas getting into the attic. Then as the temperature drops, the moisture condenses out of the cooler air.

Examples of poor ventilation can be from poorly designed or blocked roof vents, which depending on your particular home, could be ridge vents, gable vents, soffit vents, etc.

Examples of improper insulation include: insufficient or displaced insulation; insulation that blocks your roof vents; lack of vapor barriers; poor sealing of openings to warm living spaces; etc.

And then examples of heated air from living spaces can include: bathroom / shower fans that vent into the attic (or has ducting that goes through the attic which is leaking); stove fans that vent or leak into the attic; clothes dryers that vent or leak into the attic; wall spaces, especially from the area where your furnace is, that allow warm air to travel up inside the walls and then leak into the attic.

Of course, it could be a combination of several of the above.

Given that your humidity problem gets worse at night, the question is how much of this is due to the falling temperatures in the evening, versus it being because of things like cooking vents, bathroom/shower fans, furnace room air, etc. that could be coming on in the evening.

Is this helpful?
Home-Wizard.com
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QUESTION from Denise on 12/8/2009
Is it normal for my attic fan to run constantly now that we have temperature below 20 degrees? We live in North Dakota.

ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD.COM on 12/13/2009
Dear Denise:

Does your attic fan have a thermostat or humidity control on it?

If it does not have a thermostat control on it, then you might want to consider adding a thermostat control to it. This way if the temperature in your attic goes below the set temperature, then the fan will turn off. The alternative is to manually turn off your attic fan during the times of the year when you expect the temperature to be below where you need the fan to run. However this can be a bit tricky if you are using your attic fan in the winter to help prevent ice damming on your roof.

If your attic fan does have a thermostat control on it, then you might check to see if the thermostat has failed. Usually an attic fan doesn't allow the thermostat to be set down as low as 20 degrees Fahrenheit, so this is why I suggest that it may have failed.

Hope this is helpful.
Home-Wizard.com
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