I had an inspection the other day in the beautiful town of Rio Rancho, New Mexico. It's almost a suberb of Albuquerque, but it's a separate little area that has grown to be almost as large as Albuquerque... it may be larger!
Anyway, this was an older home, built in 1981. The first thing I noticed was the soffit vents were clogged. A little closer look revealed that they were clogged with paint... all of them! There are not that mant vents anyway, so to have them clogged like this will restrict and air movement in the attic.
Soffit vents allow cooler air into the attic and the natural flow for the hot air to flow out of the ridge vents at the peak. Keeping the hot air out of the attic as much as possible will also help to preserve the longevity of the shingles.
When I got into the attic I was surprised to see the attic area was insulated so well. Two layers of roll batt fiberglass insulation. But wait... the insulation was rolled all the way past the exterior walls and completely over the soffit! So that means the paint clogged soffit vents need to be cleaned for sure, but the insulation is covering them as well... no air flow!
The insulation needs to be trimmed or pulled back to expose the soffit vents, and they need to be replaced or at least cleaned out. Let that baby breathe!!
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