Installing Gable Vents – Tips on Installing a Gable Vent

That extra effort translates into higher home energy costs.

An extremely hot attic is also detrimental to your home’s roofing shingles. High temperatures in the attic can dramatically shorten the life of asphalt shingles, and can eventually lead to roof leaks and water damage to your home.

In the cold winter months gable vents also play a role in protecting your home. Gable vents, working in concert with soffit vents, help to keep you attic at outside ambient air temperature. The gable vents help to draw out warm moist air that may work its way up into your attic from the finished lower levels of the home.

By helping to ensure the attic stays at outside ambient air temperature, the risk of ice dams forming on the roof eaves is significantly mitigated. Ice dams form when warm moist air from the lower levels of the house gets trapped in the attic.

The warm moist air heats up the roof sheathing and causes the snow that is in direct contact with the roof shingles to melt.  

As the warm moist air rises in the attic and comes in contact with the cooler temperature roof sheathing and roof rafters, it will condense and form small water droplets that stay attached to the wood lumber. These water droplets can, and often do, act as miniature Petri dishes for growing mold.

Gable vents, as the name implies, are located on the gable ends of a home. They are typically located near the peak of the roof. In some cases they are the sole attic vents, which is a mistake. The soffit vents are necessary to help draw cool air into the attic, and the gable vents, or ridge vents are used to expel the rising warm air from the attic.

Gable Vent Types Gable vents, as already suggested above, are an alternative to installing ridge vents. Ridge vents run along the entire peak of a roof line. Gable vents serve a similar purpose as the ridge vents, drawing heat from the attic, but are also more aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Gable vents come in a variety of shapes, styles and sizes and are constructed out of various materials including; wood, vinyl or metal. The most common gable vent shapes are rectangular and octagon.

Use this attic conversion checklist and save time and money on finishing your attic.

The gable vents have a series of slats, or louvers on them to prevent rain, snow and wind from entering into the attic. They also typically have a screen attached to their back side to prevent insects, bats and other rodents from entering the attic.

Some more sophisticated gable vents also include fans that help to expel the hot air out of the attic and to draw cool air in via the soffit vents. Alternatively, one gable vent on one side of the house may have a fan to draw outside air into the attic, and the other gable vent on the opposite side of the home may have a fan to expel air from the attic.

Then the house sheathing and siding needs to be cut out to slide the gable vent into the 2×4 or 2×6 gable vent frame. It is then nailed into place and the exterior house siding patched. An exterior grade caulk should then be used to caulk around the outside perimeter of the gable vent.