How to Check Vinyl Siding Soffits & Ventilation

Walk around the home’s outside and examine the vinyl soffit, which is the horizontal flat area on the underneath roof overhang’s side. If you see a perforated strip that runs the soffit’s entire length, your roof has continuous soffit venting. If you see a mostly solid soffit with occasional rectangular vents, your roof has individual soffit venting.

Go to the attic on a sunny day wearing a respirator mask and protective eyewear. Wearing a long-sleeve shirt and long pants keeps fiberglass insulation fibers away from your skin. Leave the attic light off.

Look toward the attic’s sides where the slanted roof rafters meet the floor joists. If you can clearly see daylight coming from the rafters’ bottom edges, the intake soffit vents are not blocked and fresh air enters. If no light is apparent, attic insulation might be blocking the soffit vents.

Examine the rest of the attic for the exhaust vents. Cool air comes in the soffit vents, but hot air rises and escapes through higher vents. There is a space at the top of the ridge that is 2- to 4-inches wide and runs along the ridge’s entire underside if your roof has a ridge vent. Other vents are apparent in top of the sidewall gables or set into the roof near the ridge.