Wood Attic Vents
Wood attic vents are a thing of the
past, you will rarely find them on a new home or building. They were on
homes or buildings that were built before the 1960s and if they are used
today, it would usually be specified on the building plans, by the
architect. It would be more cosmetic than practical.
Metal attic vents are the most popular and can be purchased at almost
any home improvement center and lumber yard. They come in different
sizes and shapes. You can get square, round, half round, hexagon,
octagon and almost every conceivable shape that you could possibly think
of.
I'm not going to tell you that wood attic vents are better than the
metal ones or vice versa. We all know that wood rots and metal rusts and
depending upon your weather conditions, one might actually outlast the
other.
It would probably be about the same amount of work, to repair a wood
attic vent or replace an existing one with a prefabricated metal vent.
Home Repair Tip: If you have to wood attic vent, make sure that you
check the inside areas in the attic, around the attic vents, for any
water damage. The wood attic vents seem to leak more than the metal ones
and there is a good chance that you will find water damage on the
interior of the attic framing.
Another big problem with wood vents, will be their protective screening.
Usually the protective screening will be torn or missing and should be
repaired and replaced, to prevent large insects or rodents from entering
your attic. Some of the old wood vents used cloth screening and should
be replaced with metal.
I recommend using 1/4" by 1/4" wire mesh screening,
for any vents.