A roof in the Mojave takes more heat than a roof almost anywhere else in the country. On a July afternoon an unventilated attic can run well past 150 degrees, and every hour spent at that temperature is an hour taken off the life of the shingles above it and added to the load on the air conditioner below it.
Attic ventilation is the cheapest part of a roof and the part most often gotten wrong. It works as a pair: cool air pulled in low at the eaves, hot air pushed out high at the ridge. Break either half and the system stops moving air, no matter how many vents are on the roof.
Roof It Right looks at ventilation on every roof we touch, whether you called us about it or not. If the intake is blocked or the exhaust is fighting itself, we will show you what we found before we quote anything.
Most of these show up inside the house long before anyone thinks to look at the roof. If two or three sound familiar, the attic is worth a look.
Rooms under the roof stay hot into the evening while the rest of the house is comfortable. That is heat stored in the attic radiating down through the ceiling long after the sun is off the roof.
A superheated attic sits directly on top of the ceiling and, in most Vegas homes, on top of the ductwork too. The unit is fighting the roof, not the weather, and the power bill shows it.
Intake is the half everyone forgets. Insulation shoved into the eaves during an attic upgrade, or soffit screens sealed shut by a paint crew, will stop airflow completely while the roof still looks correct from the street.
Ridge vent alongside turbines or static vents lets the upper exhaust pull air from the lower exhaust instead of from the eaves. The attic short circuits and a section of it stops ventilating entirely.
Curling, blistering and granule loss well before the warranty period is up, usually worst on the slopes with the least ventilation beneath them. Heat cooks a roof from underneath as readily as from above.
A bathroom or dryer vent that ends in the attic instead of outside pushes moist air into the one place it cannot escape. Even in the desert this shows up as rusted nail heads, damp insulation and stained sheathing.
The roof does not tell the whole story. We look from inside for daylight at the eaves, blocked baffles, moisture staining and where the air is actually moving.
Ventilation is a calculation, not a guess. We measure the attic footprint, total the net free area you have, and compare it to what the roof needs.
Most failing attics are short on intake, not exhaust. We open up the soffits, clear or add baffles, and remove the competing vents fighting each other.
New ridge, static or turbine vents go in flashed and sealed to the same standard as the rest of the roof, and we walk the finished work with you.
Free estimates for homes and businesses across Las Vegas, Summerlin, Spring Valley, North Las Vegas, Henderson and Sunrise Manor.
We look before we sell. Ventilation gets quoted off a walk around the house more often than it should. We get into the attic first, because that is the only place the problem is actually visible.
The owner runs the job. James Guindon has over 30 years in the trade and is on site, not dispatching a crew and hoping.
Licensed and accredited. Nevada State Contractors Board, City of Las Vegas and Clark County licences, and an A+ record with the BBB for 15 years.
More vents is not the answer. Adding exhaust to an attic that is starved for intake makes the imbalance worse. If the fix is opening up your soffits, that is what we will tell you.
It gets flashed like a roof. Every penetration we cut is sealed and flashed to the same standard as the rest of the roof, because a vent is a hole in your roof until it is finished properly.
The building standard is one square foot of net free vent area for every 300 square feet of attic floor, split roughly half intake and half exhaust. Net free area is the actual open area after the screen and louvers are accounted for, not the size of the hole, which is why counting vents on a roof tells you very little. We measure the attic and total what you have before recommending anything.
Almost always because the intake is starved, not because there is too little exhaust. Air has to enter low at the eaves for anything to leave high at the ridge. If the soffit vents are painted shut, screened over, or buried under insulation that got pushed into the eaves, the exhaust vents have nothing to pull and the attic sits still. The second common cause is two types of exhaust on one roof, where the higher vents pull air from the lower ones instead of from outside.
Usually not, and we will say so. A powered fan moves a lot of air, but if the intake cannot keep up it starts pulling conditioned air out of the house through gaps in the ceiling, which means your air conditioner is now cooling the attic. On most homes the money is better spent fixing the intake so the roof ventilates on its own. If a fan is genuinely the right answer for your roof, we will tell you that too.
Yes. Concrete and clay tile roofs take low profile tile vents that sit down in the tile field and are close to invisible from the street, and intake can be added at the eaves without touching the tile above. Tile roofs are common here and they ventilate well when it is done right, so a tile roof is not a reason to leave the attic as it is.
A cooler attic means less heat pushing down through the ceiling and, in most Las Vegas homes, less heat sitting on the ductwork, so the air conditioner runs less. How much that is worth depends on your insulation, your ducts and your unit, and anyone quoting you a percentage before looking at the attic is guessing. The more reliable payoff is roof life, because heat is what ages shingles from underneath.
Las Vegas, Summerlin, Spring Valley, North Las Vegas, Henderson and Sunrise Manor. Our office is at 2410 N. Decatur Blvd. #135, Las Vegas, NV 89108. If you are nearby and not sure whether we reach you, call and ask.
