Just as it’s difficult for someone with a broken nose to breathe, it’s hard for your house to breathe when its soffits are damaged or the vents are blocked. And your house needs to breathe: Proper attic ventilation is vital to maintain a healthy indoor environment and to ensure the longest life for the materials that make up your home.
Houses are designed so that air flows into the attic through ventilation openings in the soffits. As the air cycles around the attic space, it carries heat and moisture up through the roof vents and out of the house. This cycle of air being drawn in through the soffits and pushed out through the roof vents prevents rot in the sheathing and roof-framing members, and it minimizes temperature differences between the attic and the air outside, lowering your home’s energy costs, preventing ice dams from forming and reducing humidity in the attic space.
Over the years various materials have been used for soffits. Wood and wood products such as tempered hardboard were early choices, and in some parts of the country they are still widely used today. But now one of the most popular soffit materials is aluminum. Available in a variety of colors (although white, tan, green and brown are the most common), aluminum soffits and their fascia coverings and moldings are low-maintenance, DIYfriendly products that provide exceptional ventilation and are easily cut and installed using standard tools, so even first-timers can achieve professional looking results in a soffit repair or replacement project.
Click here to download the soffit solutions pdf, complete with photos and how-to instructions on fixing airflow problems from damaged soffits.