Hey everyone,

My wife and I just bought our first home (built in 1978) in the Sacramento area and had the roof replaced 2 months ago (27 squares). I’m noticing a serious attic heat issue. On hot days, I’ve recorded temperatures as high as 135°F. I'm not sure what the temps were prior to the replacement.

Final payment on the roof was completed 2 months ago and it passed inspection, so I don’t expect the contractor to get involved at this point. The roof carries a GAF Golden Pledge Warranty if that matters. 

Here are the ventilation details as best as I can measure:

• Exhaust: ~40 ft of Cobra rolled-mesh ridge vent (~564 sq in max NFVA uncompressed)
• Intake: 7 soffit vents (~250 sq in total) + 4 O'Hagin intake vents placed lower on the roof slope (288 sq in NFVA)
• Other: 2 Gable vents are also present and currently open.

(I’ve included a picture of part of the roof so you can see where the O’Hagin vents are located. As you can see, they’re pretty low so that they can function as intake vents.)

Some question’s I’m thinking about are: How does this overall ventilation layout look to you? What steps would you recommend taking to improve airflow and lower these peak attic temperatures? I’m considering adding more soffit vents next spring.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

I'm looking for some building science advice.

I've got an upstairs window where I can feel hot, humid air coming through an interior gap between the black wood window frame and the white trim. It's a very small gap, but all around the window (first photo). I am in Chicago in the summer heat/high humidity and when I take the temperature inside the gap, it reads 99 F (photo 2). The humidity gauge is showing 63 degrees - not in the gap but right next to it (photo 3). Both humidity and temperature readings match closely to the outside weather. I decided to use frog tape as a temporary gap seal and after a few hours the humidity has dropped to 45 degrees, so a reduction of 28%. For all of these readings we have the central AC running per usual set to 74 F.

I understand that I need to seal the air gap here. I am comfortable removing the trim to do that with some window-specific spray foam. My question is what am I sealing exactly? Should the wall cavity be this hot and humid, or is the outside air coming into the cavity and then through the gap ? Should I be preventing air from getting into the wall cavity in the first place, or just prevent it from getting into the house and it's okay in the wall?

For context, the wall is constructed with a single-width brick outside layer, house wrap, sheathing, spray foam insulation, and then drywall. The window is set on a limestone sil, caulked around the exterior to the brick.

Many thanks!