Sometimes, your daily activities add more humidity to the air than your home can handle, leading to a buildup of moisture. The attic isn’t always to blame for ceiling condensation. Get a Handle on Your Indoor Humidity © yo camon / Adobe Stock Designing effective attic ventilation is something of an art, so it’s best left to a professional. Although many attics do well with a ridge-and-soffit ventilation system, this system isn’t ideal for every home. If your attic has only soffit vents, only ridge vents or a gable vent on just one side, then the space isn’t getting enough airflow. It should allow air to flow both in and out. Next, take a look at your attic ventilation. Applying mastic gum to the duct joints and adding an R6 layer of insulation around your sheet metal ducts goes a long way toward protecting your attic and ceiling. Warm air escaping from a duct into a cold attic can create condensation and encourage mold growth. Take care of your attic HVAC air ducts, too. If possible, have your old recessed lights replaced with insulated can models. Recessed lighting tends to leak air, but it’s tricky to seal. Dropped soffits and kneewalls should also be sealed. If you have a furnace flue, fit aluminum flashing around it and seal the flashing with heat-resistant caulk. Fill joist spaces with rolled-up insulation batts. Apply rigid foam insulation to the top of the attic hatch and install weatherstripping on the edges of the hatch. In a region with cold winters, you might need up to an R60 layer or around 20 inches of fiberglass batts.īefore you install more insulation, seal any air leaks that could let attic air flow to your ceiling. In most parts of the country, an R38 layer of insulation, or about 10 to 14 inches of fiberglass batts, is enough. If you can see the attic’s floor joints, you need more insulation. Start by checking your attic’s insulation level. Improving your attic’s air sealing and insulation prevents attic air from reaching your ceiling, and it’s a fairly easy job to do yourself. In summer, when the air conditioning is on, the reverse happens. In an attic like this, wintertime ceiling condensation can form when cold air from the attic hits your warm ceiling. The most common cause of ceiling condensation is an attic with too little insulation and ventilation. Upgrade Your Attic © artursfoto / Adobe Stock By taking steps to get rid of that moisture, you can save your ceiling and keep your home more comfortable for less. The fact that there’s moisture on your ceiling at all is a strong indication your house has problems that are running up your energy bills, ruining your air quality, and stealing your comfort. If you don’t get it under control, even a small amount of ceiling condensation can quickly leave you with an ugly, blotchy, moldy mess overhead. Lighted Magnifying Glass That Stays Put.Single vs Double Vs Triple Pane Windows.If you don't have a cable stripper, this can also be done by taking a sharp utility knife or razor blade and slicing the sheathing parallel to the wires, being careful not to slice the insulators. Once the hole is cut in the wall for the box, feed the cable (or cables) out through the wall opening.īefore feeding the cable into the old work box, use a cable stripper to remove about 6 inches of the outer vinyl sheathing from the NM-B cable, exposing the conductors and the ground wire. If the cable is already connected on the source side of the circuit, make sure the circuit breaker supplying power to it has been shut off at the main service panel. At this point, the new cable should be unattached to any electrical devices. There should be 8 to 12 inches of excess cable at the new wall opening. Make sure the new lengths of cable are sized appropriately for the amperage of the circuit. More complicated wiring scenarios may call for two cables. If the new outlet is a simple circuit extension, there will likely be just one cable running from the last outlet location to the new box location. The Spruce Home Improvement Review Boardīefore the old work box is installed, one or more NM-B electrical cables will need to be run to the wall cutout.
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