How Far Apart Should 3 Roof Vents Be Placed

Of total vent space needed.

How far apart should 3 roof vents be placed.

It should be noted that these vents which expel warm moist air from the bathroom and food prep areas of the home need their own ducts and vent hoods which direct air to the home s exterior. Starting at 1 foot from the bottom edge place 2 snow guards equally spaced apart in the valley in a staggered pattern across the entire roof area. A 50 x 30 attic would have a total area of 1 500 sq. Next divide the square footage of vent space required by the square footage of soffit vent you have selected.

Place it two feet apart from the first row. Fairly simple stuff fresh air in old stale air out. They should be divided equally between inlet and outlet vents and they can be used in any combination that will work with your roof s design. Builders refer to this as the 1 in 300 rule and it requires that the total venting space should be at least shared equally between the soffit and roof vents.

Up to 45 psf ground snow load. Thus if your attic is 450 square feet you need roof vents equaling 3 square feet. 2 snow guards per valley every 10 feet of roof. The federal housing authority fha requirement for attic venting is 1 square foot of venting for every 300 square feet of attic space.

Different forms of high and low level ventilation are used as well apart from the soffit vents and ridge vents pictured. Ft divided by 150 equals 10 sq. You need to have an equal number of vents located at the bottom of the attic or under the roof easement as you have at the top of the attic near a gable or ridge. Length x width of attic in feet 150 total sq.

Many have duct work in crawlspaces so the registers are placed in the floor. Divide this by 144 to calculate how many square feet each vent is. One square foot equals 144 square inches so the standard 16 inch by 8 inch soffit vent is 0 89 square feet. For example if you use 16 inch by 8 inch soffit vents each vent is 128 square inches.

Multiply the length of the attic times the width in feet to find the attic area then divide by 150 to find the total square feet of vent space needed. As a general rule your roof needs 1 square foot of vent area for every 150 square feet of attic space. When finished there should be a row of furring strips stretching from one end to another with the top edge aligned at the peak. The supply vents which push air through the duct work must be placed properly.

For the previous example you would need 20 soffit vents. Attic systems may use registers placed in the ceiling instead. Roof ventilation this picture represents what is considered to be the best way to ventilate a roof space. Pick out your soffit vent size and determine the square footage of the vent.

3 12 up to 4 12 pitch. If there are gaps around the roof penetration or valley points cut extra sections of furring to fit.