Wondering if any general contractor/home builder/ roofer could answer a question for me. Our recently purchased home has an attached garage addition. For some reason they placed a wall of sheet rock separating the attic addition over the garage from the attic space over the house. Well one of the gable vents is in the garage section and the other is in the attic section over the house. We have been told we have very bad ventilation in our attic. Could I just cut out the sheet rock to allow air to flow better throw the gable vents? Seems like that sheet rock is acting as a barrier preventing good ventilation.
Only reason I can figure they put up the sheet rock barrier is because they use the attic space above the garage as storage space. Which I could care less about, I would rather have proper ventilation!!
And yes I have looked online and can’t find an example of a similar situation. Thanks!
What you describe sounds to me like a fire rated wall designed to separate the house from the garage in case a fire were to develop from stored solvents, gasoline, etc. I’m not sure about SC but it’s typically a requirement of the building code.
Also they do make fire rated vents that you could install in that wall. They are basically metal openings with a spring loaded metal drop down door that is held open by a fusible link that would melt at a high temperature.
What mcvlbound said , sounds like fire wall barrier and should not
be modified by simply cutting hole through it , might also
void homeowners insurance should you have a fire and it was found
to have been cut… just saying !!
I have a solar powered attic ventilation unit that has never been installed and still in the box. 250 from Costco four years ago…moved before I could use it and spray foamed my current house.
100 bucks and it’s yours
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How old is your roof? If it’s close to needing replacement the roofer would add the ridge vent, likely without being asked to. This will drastically decrease attic temperatures, decrease HVAC demands, and provide better ventilation.
The roof still has another 8-10 years of life and a ridge vent costs way to much to have it added in now. All of my vents are clean too. Guess I will leave it how it is for now or possibly add in the vent that mclvbound recommended. Thanks for all of the info!
Island boy- Thanks for the offer. I was reading about the solar powered attic fans but not sure if I want to go that route. They say they can cause pressurization issues in your attic and cause your A/C to run harder. But let me think on it.
If its a single story house you may want to start with the soffit vents because they should be the easiest to install.
Again, who told you about the bad circulation and how did they determine this? Did your house inspector mention it? If so they would probably tell you what you should do to fix it.
We had an AC person and a guy from an energy saving company tell us about the bad circulation. As far as home inspectors go our person sucked! He told me a wall I wanted to knock out wasn’t load bearing when it was!
this isn’t difficult, for anyone that doesn’t have the proper amount of roof ventilation please stop complaining about your power bill, I’ve done hundreds of home audits and this is a common issue, I don’t sell the stuff or install it anymore, I work for the power company, if you have poor ventilation and don’t fix it then thank you
you should have AT LEAST 1 sq ft of ventilation for every 300 sq ft of attic floor space, ventilation must be split between the soffits and the roof, no amount of roof ventilation can overcome blocked soffits
this means “free area” of ventilation, the typical soffit vent if it is 4" x 36" (1 sq ft) that’s about 0.75 sq ft of free area, read the package and it will tell you the amount of free area
ridge vents were actually designed to be installed on existing roofs, it’s not difficult, remove the cap shingle, rip the roof ridge on each side with a circular saw, install the vent, install a cap shingle
forget expensive solar ventilators, and definitely forget powered fans, either use a ridge vent or a few louvers, they are both easy to install and plenty of soffit vents
I’d have to see your set up to determine whether or not this would work or not, but many homes are ditching ventilation completely. The reason is the outside humid air used to ventilate the attic often causes more problems then it helps, even with “proper ventilation”. Just throwing this out there, but I really like having a sealed garage with a dehumidifier to maintain a more constant humidity level in the garage and eliminate the excessive humidity. A dehumidifier can service the attic also. You would just need to close the little ventilation that you have. This would also be very beneficial if you’re heating and air equipment and ducts are in the attic.
Of course it might be easier to add some exit ventilation-a ridge vent is usually best. Don’t mess with the drywall between the garage and attic. This likely there as a fire wall.
