The Attic Sucks

Since yesterday was supposed to be rainy and semi-cool (70° F isn't exactly cool, but it was raining), I decided to get up in the attic and hopefully finish that job.

You may remember last spring I started putting in rafter vents so the air from the soffits could more easily travel between the rafters up to the ridge vent. This is done for two reasons. In the summer it helps to cool the attic. In the winter it helps to dry the attic. When our roof was replaced in 2006, I think nearly half the plywood was replaced because it was rotten from too much moisture. The previous owner stuff the insulation too close to the soffits, thus stopping the air flow and trapping moisture in the attic.

I had something like 30+ of these vents to install. I wanted it done and over with so I didn't have to go in the attic again. I put on my attic garb and headed up.

While working at the western most part of the roof I found this.

I put my sweaty fingers near it and the wood felt damp beyond the dampness of my fingers. When I could hear the wind outside, I could feel it on my fingers. Crap.

Have I mentioned how much I loved our roofer.

For comparison here's a spot that used to be wet, was fixed, and has since dried.

I climbed out of the attic, took off my gear and went outside to investigate. The obvious part was this was happening near the chimney, so I got out the ladder and climbed up.

I found two spots that looked like they could use some caulk, so I caulked them.

While I was up there, I noticed this huge open gap in the seam of our wood siding behind the gutter. Guess what I'll be doing today?

Later, back in the attic, I was at the far western edge and checked my possible fix. I put my fingers back up to the wet spot and thought I felt a breeze, but it was pretty stormy outside. With all the rafter vents in place in that part of the attic, it's breezy in general. So I'm kind of stuck. It's a really difficult spot to get to in our attic with all the insulation I have up there. The ideal way to check if the caulk fix worked is to go back in a few weeks and see if the wood has the past wet now dry look to it like the picture above. The other option is to call the roofer and have him get up there. His work was guaranteed for 5 or 7 years, but he's a pain in the ass.

I'm really not sure what I'm going to do at this point.

Somewhere around 6pm, I got sick of the attic and came down.

My sick of the attic shot with the new camera

I got one half of the attic completely vented and insulated to R40+. All that's left is 9 or so more vents and some insulation. Hopefully I'll get to that today or sometime this week.

By the way. I also found another fossilized mouse. Nothing but fur and bones. I think that makes 30 something dead mice found in this house since we moved in.

I hate the attic.

- b