Proper Attic Ventilation Without Soffits

The important thing to remember is the air must flow through the attic to the roof vents somewhere near the ridge of the roof.

Proper attic ventilation without soffits.

Step 5 attach the vent to the soffit photo by merle henkenius. With the help of an assistant raise the vent up to the soffit and center it over the cutout slot. If i had an older home without soffits i would strongly consider just completely air sealing the attic and adding foam insulation totally removing the need for ventilation. For proper ventilation it isn t enough for air to simply get into your attic.

Attic fans are intended to cool hot attics by drawing in cooler outside air from attic vents soffit and gable and pushing hot air to the outside. The soffit vents allow convective air movement from the soffits of the residence to the ridge vent. However if your attic has blocked soffit vents and is not well sealed from the rest of the house attic fans will suck cool conditioned air up out of the house and into the attic. With a soffit venting is not much of a challenge.

Thankfully there are some ways around this dilemma. The function of soffit vents. Use a cordless drill driver to secure the vent to the soffit with in long no. Adequate roof ventilation reduces cooling bills extends shingle life and prevents roof rot and ice dams in winter.

However if the home has no soffit it is quite a different matter. One static vent style is the turbine vent which uses wind to power its enclosed fan all it takes is a light breeze to rotate the blades and suck heat out of the attic view example on the home. Space the holes 12 to 14 in. The most common way to add ventilation to an attic is by installing air intakes in the soffits and putting an outlet at the gable of the house.

In addition insulation baffles must be installed at the point where the attic floor meets the roofline to prevent the attic insulation from migrating into the cavities and restricting the airflow from the soffit vents. It must also circulate. For more information on ventilation and moisture control read this article i wrote on proper attic ventilation it s my position that you should have a proper ventilation system in your attic and that you should always take the time to air seal the floor of the attic. For this reason the square footage of vent space at the base.

Even without soffit venting it is important to provide an air gap at the soffit level to help keep the roof deck dry. This creates a natural air flow by drawing in the air from outside pushing it up and out through the vent at the top of the house.