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Attic Fan Vent - anyone cover it up?

Posted on 8/12/23 at 8:17 am
Posted by Dixie2023
Member since Mar 2023
4612 posts
Posted on 8/12/23 at 8:17 am
We have a large attic fan vent in the hallway and it’s letting in a lot of heat. I have 2 whirly birds on roof, and obviously not large attic fan. The receptacle is covered from back in the day when there was one. Have any of you removed the vent or covered it with anything? Sorry for the dumb question, but the heat this summer and air unit intake near that fan and it’s constant running has made me wonder. All I’m told is “you are getting alot of heat through that vent.” Thank you.
Posted by SmoothBox
Member since May 2023
2416 posts
Posted on 8/12/23 at 8:58 am to
Have a roofer come and remove the vent, deck over the hole and patch over with shingles.
Posted by ItzMe1972
Member since Dec 2013
12172 posts
Posted on 8/12/23 at 9:20 am to
"Have a roofer come and remove the vent, deck over the hole and patch over with shingles"
--

It's not on the roof, but in the hallway.

I'm wondering if you could get a roll of fiberglass and just cover it up in the attic.
Posted by gerald65
Moss Bluff, LA
Member since Jul 2020
710 posts
Posted on 8/12/23 at 9:39 am to
quote:

I'm wondering if you could get a roll of fiberglass and just cover it up in the attic.

That is what I would do. I would put at least 6" of insulation. 10" or 12" would be better.

It would be a good idea to first put something to seal the top of the vent to prevent any air "flow" from coming into the house. Not sure what would be best, maybe a small tarp or sheet of plywood. Then cover the area with insulation.
Posted by MikeD
Baton Rouge
Member since Jan 2004
8156 posts
Posted on 8/12/23 at 10:40 am to
I’ve noticed this more in the winter. Can definitely feel a draft walking under it.
Posted by 9rocket
Member since Sep 2020
1639 posts
Posted on 8/12/23 at 10:41 am to
I have both removed them and covered them. You can go either way.
If you remove it it can be a pain. Big, heavy, awkward. But people like to convert them to patio fans. Nothing better.
If you leave it in place, just put insulation in it from above (more is better) , then drywall on the ceiling to help seal any cracks.
Posted by 98eagle
Member since Sep 2020
3111 posts
Posted on 8/12/23 at 11:52 am to
I have two possible solutions for you if you do not want to remove the fan and permanently seal off the hole. If you want the hole permanently sealed, then the following solutions are inferior to removing the fan and then boarding off and sheet rocking the ceiling.

Whether you wanted to revive or replace your attic hole house fan in your hallway or not, I would set it up so that you could easily cover/insulate the hole and then easily remove and recover the hole as needed. This allows you some flexibility (when feasible) to uncover the hole in those situations where you want air flow through the house for ventilation.

One (easier, less costly) solution is to cover the hole with a tarp and then put rolled insulation over the tarp. I would use the rolled insulation that has a plastic wrap all around it, so that your less likely to touch/be exposed to insulation when you uncover/recover the hole by pulling the tarp off, and pulling it back over the hole and readjusting the insulation.

This second solution is sturdier and more costly, and may or may not work in your situation. It entails custom building your own removable solid foam cover that you cover/uncover in the attic. Note that this would be kind of expensive with today's super inflated prices, but just something to consider. Also know that you would have to adapt your design to fit your situation. I explain what I did so you can understand the concept and adapt the concept to your situation if you wanted to do this.

I'm not sure if this would work in your situation, but in our prior house I had a similar situation in a hallway where I needed to cover my attic pulldown ladder hole. In the attic the folded ladder stuck up about 6" or so above the plywood floor surrounding the ladder.

For the materials, I bought eight 4'x 8' sheets of unfaced foam board insulation in 2" thickness, plus several large rolls of duct tape at Lowes. They also have these boards in 1" or 3/4" thickness. For the tools, I used a 4' aluminum straight edge ruler, a black magic marker, and one of the $2 box cutters that have snap off blades. You need a sharp thin knife blade that extends beyond 2", to cut the foam board so a normal box cutter will not work. You can try different types of knives but this is what I ended up using.

For the design, I first cut all 8 foam boards in a smaller rectangle that was 16" longer and 16" wider than the attic pulldown hole as I wanted the foam cover to have an 8" thickness beyond all four sides of the hole.

For the first four foam boards, I cut a rectangular hole in their center to exactly match the dimensions of the attic pulldown hole. These 4 foam boards fit perfectly over the attic pulldown hole and went around the retracted ladder. I used a lot of duct tape to wrap around all four foam boards multiple times to bind these first four foam boards together. I bound two boards together, then bound the 3rd board to them, and the 4th board. I used a lot of duct tape until the boards felt secure.

I separately bound the last four solid rectangular foam boards together with a lot of duct tape. Then I put the four solid bound foam boards on top of the 4 foam boards with the rectangular hole. I then used a lot more duct tape to bind those together along the 8" outer edge all the way around.

So the end result is that I had a custom 8" thick foam cover that fit perfectly over my attic pulldown ladder hole. I could climb the ladder, push it up out of the way, and then I could put it back as I climbed back down the ladder.

This idea might work in your situation, but you would just cover and remove your custom sized foam cover from within your attic.

Good luck with whatever you end up using or rigging.
This post was edited on 8/12/23 at 12:06 pm
Posted by Queen
Member since Nov 2009
3034 posts
Posted on 8/12/23 at 12:05 pm to
You’ve gotten a lot of good answers. We had one of these prior to renovating the house. (House was old, not a shred of insulation anywhere in it, so in our case the attic fan was not the biggest problem for our energy bills.)

We took it out and turned the hole into a pull-down ladder. Previously our attic “entrance” was in the garage and had no ladder. We didn’t DIY, but it was a simple thing for the contractor do do. Had we not been gutting everything else with him already we certainly could have DIY-ed it.

Might be another option if you would like an attic entrance in that spot!
Posted by Dixie2023
Member since Mar 2023
4612 posts
Posted on 8/12/23 at 6:26 pm to
Thanks. I will find out!
Posted by Dixie2023
Member since Mar 2023
4612 posts
Posted on 8/12/23 at 6:26 pm to
Thank you.
Posted by Dixie2023
Member since Mar 2023
4612 posts
Posted on 8/12/23 at 6:27 pm to
Thank you.
Posted by Dixie2023
Member since Mar 2023
4612 posts
Posted on 8/12/23 at 6:28 pm to
Thank you. I will consider what you’ve taken time to write.
Posted by Dixie2023
Member since Mar 2023
4612 posts
Posted on 8/12/23 at 6:30 pm to
Yes, good advice. Unfortunately I couldn’t make 1 post to say thanks w/out replying to my own question. I appreciate everyone’s suggestions and will read through more thoroughly to decide how to do it. Thank you.
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