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Moisture in the Attic (Holy Shit!)


Erby

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The one I saw a couple weeks ago was due to ceiling insulation being stuffed tightly into the soffits - virtually no soffit ventilation, which pretty much eliminates cross-ventilation. All the ridge vent or gable vent in the world won't work very well without a properly breathing soffit. Even prior to true soffit ventilation, there were usually enough gaps in soffits to provide decent cross-ventilation unless completely blocked by insulation.

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Hi,

Here are some pictures from the moisture in the attic of a house at Thursdays inspection. The color doesn't show up that well in the photos; but there was white rot growing on the skip.

At first, one might think there is an exhaust fan disconnected somewhere.

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Or maybe there's a roof leak.

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Maybe there's a leak at the ridge vent?

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Wait a minute! This roof is only five years old, what the hell is corroding these staples? Well, lookie there; there's the danged exhaust vent at the base of the area where the moisture is. Well, now I know, that vent is leaking like hell and all of that steam is condensing on the underside of this cold roof. These people are lucky they didn't kill themselves!

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Actually, I'm just funnin' ya. I actually knew what was going on before I went into the attic. It was the very first thing I saw when I stepped out of my car and looked at the house - steam rising out of the shakes instead of the exhaust vent - I was about 99% certain I'd find the attic soaking wet after seeing that.

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ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

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Actually, I'm just funnin' ya. I actually knew what was going on before I went into the attic. It was the very first thing I saw when I stepped out of my car and looked at the house - steam rising out of the shakes instead of the exhaust vent - I was about 99% certain I'd find the attic soaking wet after seeing that.

I saw a cat IV furnace vent disconnected in an attic a while back on a 3 year old house-- it was bad. I didn't see any signs from the exterior, but concentrated areas of moisture and fungal growth in an attic are sure a dead giveaway. Good thing it wasn't a new construction inspection-- I wouldn't have caught it. There were only a few inches of the vent visible in the attic-- the disconnect was at insulation level and behind a flex duct.

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