How to Check if Your Soffit Ventilation Baffles are Working (From Your Attic)

Attic ventilation is extremely important. Proper attic ventilation is what helps keep mold from growing in your attic, and also helps your attic to release heat on hot days. Many attics have vents both at the bottom of the roof (intake) and also at the top of the roof (exhaust). Intake vents are often in the form of soffit vents, but they can also be under-shingle vents. With either of these, it is likely that you will have baffles attached to the underside of your roof.

Baffles are often made of foam, plastic, or cardboard, and act as air channels that allow air to flow up into your attic from the outside. It is important that these air channels be open, and in this video I show an easy way to check whether or not they are. With traditional soffit vents you can almost always see daylight when looking down the soffit --- BUT your head or camera NEEDS to be directly against the roof to see this. With under-shingle vents, you may not actually be able to see daylight, but can confirm they are working with a smoke test.

00:00 Intro - How Soffit Vents and Baffles Work
00:45 What Soffit Baffles Look Like
01:04 How to Judge if Soffit Vents are Open

[mae]

My house was built in 92 and they closed the effing soffits. Unbelievable. Insulation installers still put baffles there out of habit, but no air was coming from there. I could kick the installers in the nuts for that.
Got a new roof and the roofers put a continuous shingle vent for intake and ridge vent for venting and removed by (broken) power fan. We'll see how that works this summer. Had significant moisture issues before the new roof.

[G.I.JeffsWorkbench]

Another helpful, straightforward vid. The folks in the PIT area are in good hands.

[mattluongo]

It just confirms they are open, not that your ventilation is working or adequate. But this is still good information.

[cge]

When you are trying to get your head close to the roof, be careful there are nails sticking through the sheeting on the roof.

[mryan]

I enjoy watching your videos I've watched many of them.

I don't understand condensation v well but I do know that when warm air meets a cold surface condensation can form, however ventilation helps remove any condensation that forms.

This is probably a stupid question but would moisture not condensate on the part of the roof (near the baffles) where the insulation meets the roof rafters? There is air getting in to the rest of the attic, but not at the edges where the roof meet the insulation, meaning no air would get to that particular part of the rafters? I'd imagine there's a simple exploration though why that's not the case.

I have a sloping ceiling at the edges / side of my loft, I'm a bit paranoid of putting insulation there at the edges for fear condensation would form. But it's a considerable area so I'd imagine a fair bit of heat would be lost if I don't insulate it.

[mpharr]

In a 2 solar powered roof fans in a home with one changed to push air in the other to pull heated air out be more efficient than 2 120 attic fans pulling air conditioned air from the finished areas of the home?

[deankay]

With 4 in 12 pinch, only 3 sides of the West end over two bedrooms W/closet are accessible. The East end has 2 gables with high vents. The other wall has a 1" overhang to zero, so not accessible for adding vents. The roof design gives each room a different design built in the 1980-81. We have R62 (Way over minimum) had blanket over blown-in fiberglass but the vents are blocking the sofit vent's, of this 22 square foot roof. I am down to remove the exterior vents and make and auger to screw into insulation blocking and pull out to open to achieve air flow in. I tried pushing it in and won't budge. Any thoughts as it is impossible from the inside. I can't clear, remove or reach without a tool with a hook. Well insulated but way over done without proper venting considered. Other than cutting the outer 4 feet of topside plywood, ice & water shield with new shingles, it is to expensive and dangerous being on the edge of a roof with 2X6 rafters to the gutters in Eastern Nebraska while disabled that has had 16 medical procedures, fusions, and stimulation with electrodes. No help. I don't want the shingles to cook from the bottom. Enjoyed the video.

[georgejacobs]

Does the whole Eve around your house if you only have 15 suffix around your house that go up into the eve do those suffix suck in air to the whole Eve area around the house or just in that one area where the vent is only 1:45

[andrewj]

I bought a cheap hard hat at the orange big box store years ago for a Halloween costume. I plan to actually use it when I go crawling around our hip roof attic air sealing. Just the thought of scraping my scalp against a roofing nail hurts.

[EM-qzwj]

Nice video. I need to check my soffits to see if I can see daylight. I noticed that your baffles look to be about 16" wide and don't cover the entire 24" rafter bay. Mine are the same way. It seems that they should be wide enough to go from rafter to rafter. Is that correct or does it matter? I've seen mixed answers in my research. Seems like the wider the baffle is, the better it will block any insulation from falling down there. I'm wondering if I should replace mine with the wider kind. Thanks.

[TheBalognaPony]

When i place my baffles only half of the soffit hole is within the baffle. I can squeeze my way to the top plate and staple the baffle to the top plate and bend them up but it is very difficult and exhausting. Is it worth the effort to do it this way or is half the hole fine? I could also cut more out from the outside i guess.

[cannonball]

Thanks for the video. If I have blown-in insulation but I can see daylight through the soffit without any baffles, do I still need to add baffles?

[Earl-vbsj]

so those other vents, by the peak, "exhaust vents", do they stay open 365 or wut cuz mine were closed and my attic is 130F. when do I reclose em

[LTDan-pkmx]

I have a quick question for you.. I just had a new roof installed and took off my can vents and had ridge vents installed.. Should i keep my gable fans or not? Also i will install plastic baffles and what do you use at the bottom of the baffles to plug that area so insulation doesnt fall into the soffit area?

[Inkling]

A good suggestion, particularly when combined with a selfie stick to get in close.

[aintquitewright]

If you look at the soffit vents from outside you can see the buildup of dust from the air being sucked up into the attic.

[whereamigoingwiththis]

Help! Our house was built in 2000, but in the last two years we’ve been hearing the most annoying sound in attic that only shows up when wind comes from a certain direction. Could one of the baffles be loose? It’s maddening!

[rodrigito]

Please wear protective glasses. Dangerous area to be taking changes. Thanks for the educational video.

[robertcornelisse]

So we live in NJ and bought a house last year. It is a rancher with small attic. It has 2 gable vents on either side. Where the roof hangs over i don't see any soffit ventilation. The house is build in the 50s . Was it common then to not have soffit vents and how could i change that?

[stephaniekeller]

If mine are blocked how do I clean them out?