Dennis in Calgary, Alberta convinced me to come visit his attic which he was about to add ventilation to, but he had never been up in the attic.This was a very interesting attic, and an interesting home. The cellulose insulation was matted down a bit and had a very strange grid pattern in the to...
Hector from North Bay, Ontario, tells me that he has just built a new house. He has soffit vents on both side of the house but no gable nor roof top vents. Is this enough?Simply -- NO.If there is a strong wind, you would probably get a little air moving through the attic, but most likely just ...
Dan from Winnipeg, Manitoba writes: "We have an older manufactured home with a basement. Years ago a new roof was put on top of the existing one. It is post & beam with trusses, sheeted in with shiplap and a metal roof put on. The problem is the original metal roof now seems to sweat in th...
On other shows we talked about wiring in ceiling fans -- today we dealt simply with how to attach it to the ceiling so that it does not come down on top of the bed like a giant blender.You cannot just attach it to the ceiling drywall.You cannot just attach it to a simple electrical box in the att...
Lawrence in Toronto Ontario is wondering if his attic hatch might be letting moisture leak into the attic.Definitely! This hatch should be treated as an outside door and it needs to be weather-stripped and latched down tight. It is usually a very easy job by simply applying some of the adhesive...
Most people think that the purpose of attic ventilation is to remove moisture from the attic. That may be true in the spring, but the rest of the Canadian year it does other things.In the summer it generally reduces the temperature of the attic, reducing the need for or the cost of air condition...
Ken in cold Saskatoon is worried that adding insulation to his attic will cause problems. The key is to insure that he has good ventilation coming in through the soffits and going out higher up on the roof.In this segment we showed how to go into the attic to see if daylight was visible around t...
Scott from Elmwood Ontario wanted to know how to get insulation into the small space between the drywall and the roof in a renovated attic -- that slanted part of the ceiling above the knee wall -- and still leave space for ventilation.My trick is to put little or no insulation between the roof m...
Paul from Ajax, Ontario writes:Two years ago I had a ceiling ventilator fan with lights installed in the bathroom. During a very cold spell, water was dripping from the reflector into the bath tub. It has a 4" aluminum flexible pipe connected from the discharge opening into the attic straigh...
Not true for all parts of Canada!In certain regions (most of the data is from the National Research Council in the Saskatoon area) it appears that the only effective way to stop continuous accumulation of frost in the attic is to not ventilate at all during the worst of winter, but to seal the...
