St. Louis Home Inspector Tip: Exhausted Attic?

     Is your attic exhausted?  As a home inspector, I see a lot of them that are.  No, I’m not talking about it your attic being overworked and tired.  I’m talking about having your bathroom exhaust fan dumping all of that moisture from your showers into your attic where it can create problems for your home. 

      This will be the first of a few blogs on fairly simple improvements that can be done in your attic during periods of cooler weather when it’s not so hot up there.

      A handy do-it-yourself type person can probably handle a lot of these, but anyone can get them done by hiring a handyman type contractor.  If you don’t know one, let me know, and I can refer you to a good one you can trust.  And of course, if you have family or friends who are in the building trades, you can often get a lot of free labor in return for providing some food and refreshments when the work is done. 

      Also, let’s insert just a word of caution here.  When working in an attic, a good quality dust respirator or mask should be used to prevent inhaling any potentially harmful particles.

      Most of the bathroom exhaust fans I see are dumping all of that shower generated moisture right up into the attic, and sometimes it’s even directly into the insulation.  All of this moisture can cause problems up there, and especially if the attic is not well ventilated.  Condensation from this moisture dripping off of cold metal surfaces can soak into the insulation.  This can cause it to compress and lose efficiency over time.  Also, if the moisture can’t escape from the attic, it can end up causing problems with mold.  One of the photos with this blog is of a large area of moldy roof sheathing in an attic in southern Jefferson County. (bottom photo)

   I provided a handy link to a an article on how to install a bathroom exhaust fan.

    A decent quality and easy to install roof or outer wall kit can be obtained from most hardware stores.  It contains a flexible plastic hose, a flap valve exterior vent hood similar to one for a clothes dryer, and a template with directions on how to locate and install everything. 

    It is important the vent hood be installed either up through a sloped roof, or out through an outer wall not close to your soffit vents.  Some builders or homeowners route bathroom exhaust hoses across the attic to either a gable or soffit vent, but this is wrong.  Soffit vents are air intakes for the attic, as are gable vents depending on the wind direction.  If you’re dumping moisture out an intake vent, it can possibly just get sucked right back into the attic.

    Finally, don’t just point your exhaust duct towards an exterior vent hood, because most of the moisture won’t make it out of the attic.  You’ll need to positively secure the duct to the exterior vent hood to make sure you’re sending every drop of moisture completely out of the house.

Dryer Vent Kit Example

AUTHOR:
Michael Chambers – St. Louis Area Home Inspector
BrickKicker Home Inspections
Email: Michaelc@brickkicker.com
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