Frequently Asked Questions

Vulcan Vents are part of a home hardening system:

  • Install Vulcan Vents to protect against wind-blown embers from entering your home
  • Clean your gutters and install gutter guards to minimize build up of highly flammable material on your roof and eaves
  • Tree & vegetation management
  • Cleaning up the 0’-5’ perimeter around your home. Some insurance companies will say 6’ is a good starting point. Further is better.
  • Safety film on your windows to prevent them from breaking if exposed to a flame front. These can also be tinted for UV protection!
  • Fire resistant and flame retardant paints are available from Fire Free Coatings and Safer Building Solutions for wood siding and decks.
  • Wood decks and balconies. These need special consideration. They can be a great place for embers to accumulate. We recommend reaching out to a home hardening contractor and doing some additional research to learn about your options.
  • Sheds and supplemental buildings need this attention too.
  • Lastly, there are sprinkler systems and other water projection technologies in the market to help defend your entire home and property.

The concept of home hardening is about creating a system that can increase your chances of success and help to mitigate risk and damages during a wildfire event.

Other Resources

Ready for Wildfire, by Cal Fire is a great resource for home hardening!

Yes, with care: Ensure that paint does not clog, either the stainless steel ember mesh on the back of the vent, or the honeycomb matrix and the perforated vent face. Our intumescent coating will continue to react to heat and flames even when painted. The goal is to not clog the vent and prevent airflow.

Our standard vents are made with G90 galvanized steel frames and common preparation steps should be taken when painting galvanized steel.

Vulcan Vents have THE highest airflow on the market. Compared to other types of vents on the market, our vents have 2x-3x and even 4x times the airflow; make and models vary.

Airflow is CRITICAL. if you don’t plan correctly, you could choke your home! Homes need to breathe properly to prevent dangerous mold, dry rot, and help keep energy costs low. 

If you don’t have adequate attic ventilation your home might not meet your local building code and cost you thousands of dollars to fix. 

Choosing vents with the greatest airflow can be a huge cost savings: Fewer vents needed = lower costs to retro-fit your home!

The term “NFVA” stands for net free ventilation area. This is used by your local building code to determine how many square inches of ventilation required to properly ventilate your home. Foundation ventilation and attic ventilation are important to meet certain building codes and keep your home cool and dry

Vulcan Vents work like a vent when they’re supposed to and work like a fire wall when they need to!

  1. The fine, ember mesh in the back of the vent is what blocks embers. This is a physical barrier that works 24 hours a day, rain or shine.
  2. Our patented, honeycomb matrix with an intumescent coating blocks flames and hot gases. When exposed to extreme heat and/or flames, the coating will expand and seal the vent shut!.

The intumescent coating on our patented honeycomb matrix will begin to react when temperatures reach approx 450 F with full expansion at 500 F.

We get this question a lot! ANY product with intumescence will only activate once and will need to be replaced once activated. It’s important to understand that if your home has been exposed to that amount of heat, you’ll likely be replacing your windows and seals, siding, paint, trim, etc.

The older ¼” screen and newly updated ⅛” screen always faces the exterior. With our continuous vents, the perforated steel always faces the exterior. Our fine, stainless steel, ember catching mesh always faces the interior space of the building envelope.

Vulcan Vents install just like any other vent. What makes our vents different is the insides! Any licensed contractor can install our vents without special knowledge. General carpentry and construction knowledge is all that is required for installation. Keep in mind that many state laws have their own requirements for when a license is required for construction projects. Consult your local jurisdiction’s requirements for details. 

We recommend using EverKem’s fire blocking Fire Seal 136 for installation of all of our vents.

This is a mortar based, fire block sealant that ensures a gap free seal for all of your vents. This should be used behind the flange where the back of the flange meets your siding during installation.

EverKem’s Fire Stop 814 is an intumescent sealant that should be used for other various gaps and penetrations around your home.

Vulcan Vents are designed for “passive ventilation”. Passive airflow means that air flows passively rather than being forced by a powered system. The main concern when considering using Vulcan Vents in a powered system is the fine ember mesh is designed to catch small, but dangerous embers. When used in conjunction with a powered system, the mesh is prone to catch other, unwanted material and debris.

In regards to dryer vents, these vents are used primarily for exhaust only. Secondly, dryer vents lead to a closed system; the dryer, and they do not ventilate like your attic, eave, foundation of your home.

Yes! Retro-fitting some homes can prove difficult if you don’t want to disturb your existing vents, or ordering custom vents for your home isn’t cost effective. Our VM Series comes with our patented, honeycomb matrix and our stainless steel ember mesh as a set. We offer them in various sizes and need to be cut to fit your desired application. This product is installed from the “back side” of your existing vent opening. You can learn more by checking out our Retrofit Vents.

Vulcan Vents offers custom vents for many of our vents types. Visit the product section of the type of vent that you’re interested in and look for the “custom vents” link. Fill this out and give it to your local retailer for ordering, quotes and lead times.

Our VSC vents are a continuous vent that are designed for various applications where strip ventilation is required. Our VSC series can be used for ridge venting (cap not provided), soffit venting in balconies, walkways and eaves. 

*For ridge venting, it’s advised to provide your roof pitch when ordering from your local retailer so that we can bend the flanges to accommodate your pitch.

We are proud to say that every Vulcan Vent is assembled in the U.S.A.

Vulcan Vents are approved for use in all WUI zones! The W.U.I. is the Wildland Urban Interface. This is where human development has encroached into rural and/or wildlands. There are 4 different levels of W.U.I.. Each state makes their own determination as to what areas fall into those 4 categories. Next, is how likely that W.U.I area is likely to burn. These two pieces of data, along with other factors are used to determine it’s Fire Severity Zone. Check out our Codes and Compliance for more information!