Venting A Home With No Attic

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.

Venting a home with no attic.

If the area is insulated without a vapor barrier the requirement doubles. If you have an attic with no soffit vents but 2 unobstructed gable vents then you will probably be ok on ventilation. Generally speaking you need a ratio of 1 300 where for every 300 square feet of ceiling space you need 1 square foot of attic ventilation. Smart vent a special roof eaves vent product that provides a 3 4 opening about 6 above the top of the roof drip edge.

It makes the attic space cooler it makes the home more energy efficient. With a soffit venting is not much of a challenge. How to vent an attic with no eaves. Don t avoid ventilating your attic for fear you re letting cold air into the house.

When the attic becomes part of the home to be heated and cooled open wall gable vents and roof vents are no longer feasible but the underside of the roof the sheathing and rafters can still get. Venting solutions for roofs with no overhang or soffit install special roof intake venting products that work at the lower edge of the roof decking underneath the first course of shingles. Normal vented air likes to enter the attic lower down near the bottom third of the attic and as it passes through it will exit higher up near the top third of the attic space. If there are asphalt shingles on your roof the attic must be ventilated to comply with the terms of the manufacturer s warranty.

The important thing to remember is the air must flow through the attic to the roof vents somewhere near the ridge of the roof. Your actual living space is sealed and insulated at the attic floor the attic is outside this envelope. Thankfully there are some ways around this dilemma. Attic ventilation keeps your house cooler in summer and it prevents moisture from building up in winter and ruining your roof framing and insulation.

Many years ago home builders were simply unaware of the importance of attic ventilation this is why some older homes don t even have soffits. Proper ventilation of the roof and attic of a home achieves several important functions. If you have an older home that has no soffits eaves or roof overhangs then there are a few different options to add venting to your attic. 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.

That said air resistance and interference such as vent grates reduces the area of true ventilation. However if the home has no soffit it is quite a different matter.