Baffle installation

user182

I’m thinking more about ventilation improvements these days. It’s important because the warranty is greatly diminished without it, and mildew can develop without it.

I always add more soffit vents if needed and on occasion more baffles to hold back the insulation.

I’ve noticed that house that are about 15-20 years old frequently have the minimum number of soffit vents required to meet code. If you go in the attic though you will probably find that they only have 1 baffle per vent.

An 8” x 16” soffit vent has about 65 square inches of net free area. I figure you would probably need 3 baffles for each vent to provide enough net free area in the attic for the air to get through.

I’m thinking about this more now because I want to start offering blown in fiberglass insulation and of course adding baffles while the installers are in the attic would be the best time to do it.

I’m just wondering, how often do you add baffles?

How many baffles do you add? I think newly constructed homes have baffles between every truss. When you improve ventilation on an existing house with a roof replacement or insulation job do you think it would make sense to put baffles between each truss?

It might be difficult to do with a lower pitched roof.

Look at the photo below and you’ll see a guy lying on his back to install baffles. I don’t know if anyone that works for me would be that dedicated, how about you?

Attached Images

Baffle installation.jpg (109.1 KB, 18 views)

Grumpy

We do blown in fiberglass and if the customer is willing to pay, will baffle every rafter. At very very least you'd want to baffle any rafter which has a soffit vent, but the cost increase would be soooo minimal, you might as well do them all or none.

__________________
-Grumpy
Chicago Gutters Chicago Roofing

tomstruble

those foam type baffles alow air to blow right thru the fiberglass the better ones have a dam that covers the edge of the insulation

user182

Are you using the Owens Corning AttiCat insulation?

Are you selling insulation jobs separately or mainly as an add-on to roofing jobs?

user182

Can you post a picture or a link?

How hard is that type of baffle to install on a retrofit application?

user182

Are you talking about this baffle made by Berger? It’s called Accuvent. Can it be used on a retrofit or just new construction?

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Accuvent.jpg (36.7 KB, 92 views)

user182

Here are a couple I found at insulationmaterials.com. They are made out of cardboard. One of them is 6 ft long, I wonder if it would possible to use it in attics that don’t have much head room.

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	Bafflo.gif (7.5 KB, 92 views)
	THe Shoot.jpg (18.5 KB, 14 views)

user182

This photo shows a piece of fiberglass being use as a plug to prevent the blown in insulation from being blown into the soffit.

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styrofoambaffle.jpg (95.2 KB, 16 views)

Lefty

Hi,

I just started to offer attic insulation. Owens Corning is the brand I went with.

Attic Insulation

Broken_Roofer

When we install baffles we'll put them in every rafter space, whether there's a vent or not, the cost difference is negligable to me.

Also to note if you're using multiple baffles to cover a larger run, space them 1-2" apart to allow airflow between the baffles, preventing moisture build up in the baffles themselves. You'll regret not doing so when you get a call back in the middle of winter for a mysterious leak that shouldn't be there.