I just bought my house last summer (built in 1982) with newer roof. I noticed a few days ago that my attic fan was not working. Turns out the motor is shot. The fan was not even propertly secured with all four screws which probably contributed to its demise.

I'm looking to replace the whole unit with thermostat, not just a motor replacement. I don't want to buy a cheap Home Depot or Lowes model.

Any recommendations?

 

They're pretty much all made by a very few companies and are very similar in construction.

Might want to read through this post...http://www.doityourself.com/forum/du...placement.html

A shame they didn't just put a ridge vent on when they did the re-roof.

 

Sorry for sounding like an idiot, but how would I know if they did install a ridge vent? Would I be able to tell by looking inside the attic? Maybe I should take pics and post?

It could very well be that they did install a ridge vent (when the roof was replaced 6-7 years ago). If that's the case, maybe they didn't want to remove the old attic fan because that would leave a hole in the roof? I dunno.

For now, all I've done is removed the old motor from the attic fan, nothing more.

Suggestions on how to proceed?

 

Ridge vents will be raised about 1" along the peak of the roof. Normally fans would be removed and the hole patched if the ridge vents are installed...but that would only be if they did a complete ripoff and replacement. If they added another layer of shingles on top of old...they probably wouldn't go to the trouble.

As to the fan, do you see any stickers or model numbers indicating the manufacturer?

 

You can tell you have ridge vent from in the attic if the ceiling is visible, as you won't see your roof sheathing meeting at the peak, there will be a gap.

 

I verified last night that I have (some form of) a ridge vent. There was about 1 inch of plywood cut away one both sides of the peak. There is a mesh-like material that was used to fill in the gap.

I also realized by looking at my home inspection report that the soffit material (recently installed by the previous owner probably when the house was re-sided) is non-functional. No holes were cut out of the soffits when the material was installed. Therefore I have no air intake coming in through the soffits.

So where is the air intake in my attic? Just my two gable vents? Is this sufficient?

I suppose if I do nothing about opening my soffits there is no reason to replace the attic fan as this will only suck in my conditioned air in the house.

Is removing soffit material, cutting holes, and replacing them a major expense? Who would be qualified to do this? A roofer?

Suggestions?

 

Modern soffit is usually full of ventilation holes - yours is solid material?

 

The soffit material has holes (groups of them seperated every 16 inches or so) but when I did a poke test in random holes, all i felt was plywood everywhere.

I don't know if there are any older soffit openings in the plywood under the new material, and if there are, they are likely covered by the newer soffit material where there are coincidentally no holes.

I just spoke to my home inspector and he recommended removing the soffit material, drilling 2 and 1/2 inch holes every rafter span and reinstalling the material. Right now my only source of intake is the gable vents (hot, unshaded air) and the ridge vents serve as the exit point. Replacing the bad attic fan would not be advisable until I get more air up there.