Often I receive the question, “Greg, what is the best soffit material to use on my Houston home for ventilation energy efficiency and longevity?” With so many choices out on the market these days such as, vinyl siding, faux stone siding, fiber cement siding (HardiPlank) and last but not least, LP SmartSide siding. I will answer this question with the best ventilation soffit that has no screens that will ever need maintenance. The best option will naturally be the soffit that offers the most ventilation for what Wikipedia calls a humid subtropical climate areas like the Houston southeast Texas metro area.
Best Ventilation – Intake
LP SmartSide Siding (Soffit Panels) Boast 10 SQ Inches Per Lineal Foot Of Ventilation. This will allow the home to be cooler by increasing the intake of cooler air into any Texas attic space.
As you can see in looking at this Houston home that Texas Home Exteriors installed LP SmartSide Siding on, the lanced soffit panels with continuous intake vents.
This amount of increased ventilation 10 SQ Inches (LP SmartSide Siding Soffit) VS. 5 SQ Inches (Fiber Cement Hardie Soffit) will help fresh air to enter the attic space offering more ventilation and efficiency.
One of the reasons that I am writing this article is because many homeowners are not aware of what the EPA says about home ventilation issues are on fresh air and the differences are between LP Smart Soffit and Hardie Soffit.
If we did not live in the hot and humid area of Southeast Texas this would not be an issue. But we do so maximum ventilation is needed and the LP SmartSoffit offers double of James HardieSoffit.
Fiber Cement / Hardiesoffit 5 SQ Inches Per Lineal Foot of Ventilation.
Increased Fresh Air Flow LP SmartSoffit over Hardie Soffit
This increased fresh air flow will allow any TX home to have a fresh air intake of cooler air. This in turn will allow the AC Unit that is often located in our Texas attics to run much more efficiently and use less electricity month after month.
As we all know, the less that we use our utilities such as the AC unit that is often in the attic to cool our Texas homes, the lower your utility bills will be.
It is important for your Houston Texas home to have proper attic ventilation to help keep your roof and home cool.
Proper Roofing Ventilation – Exit
If the roof is not vented to let all of the hot air will not escape, and exit is most certainly needed. Energy Star recommends proper attic ventilation that will extend the life of your roof and helps to keep the surface of roof cooler in turn reducing utility bills during our long hot southeast Texas summer months! When installed correctly and by using best roofing practices, your GAF roofing shingles will keep the water out of your home, keep your roofing shingles cooler and your home will be cooler and more energy efficient.
Soffit (intake) Ridge Vent (exhaust) Flow Diagram
The red arrows in the diagram on the right show how the cooler air is drawn in by the soffit vent and the hot air is pushed out through the Ridge Vent (roof ridge vent) on the ridge / peak of the roof.
This type of Texas vented roof system coupled with proper intake will keep your attic cooler in the hot TX summer months saving you money on your utility bills (AC bills).
This you will enjoy month after month, year after year for homes in the Houston TX metro area. As we all know, this is a good thing for sure!
Hi, my name is Adrienne I was just looking at your SmartSide Soffit Best Ventilation Texas Home Exteriors site and see that your website has great information. Thank you.
I think other web site proprietors should take this web site as an model, very clean and great user friendly style and design, as well as the content. You are an expert in this topic!
Thank you for your compliment about our website, we have worked diligently in making it user friendly. Also we have done a lot of research and have worked hands on with the LP SmartSide Soffit and love the product as well as Houston Texas area homeowners.
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I read your post and wished I was good enough to write it myself, thank you.
Thank you for your comments about the LP SmartSide Soffit and it’s ventilation capabilities.
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