No attic ventilation?

Hello,
I was thinking about my house remodeling projects and I came around to the attic and replacing the insulation in the attic with blown in stuff. Upon watching many youtube videos I realized I have never seen any soffit vents in my attic. I took a stroll around my house and sure enough not a one. The house has a hip roof and I was wondering how the air vents out the top also. I haven't seen any ridge vents either. The only thing I do have for ventilation in the attic are two turbines we installed when we had the new roof put on. We removed the shake shingle roof and had sheathing added and regular composite roof tiles. I know it leaked water pretty good so I can only imagine air went right threw also. Does the shake shingle roof not need soffit vents?

skeeter

 

The house I grew up in was built around 1905. My parents bought it about the time I was born, 1950. It had no insulation at all and after the first winter my daddy had mineral wool blown into all the exterior walls and also the attic. It had cedar shingles on the roof until the early 1960s at which time they were replaced with asphalt composition shingles. That roof was replaced in the mid 1990s.

That house NEVER had any soffit vents. It never had any ridge venting. Nor did it have mushroom or turbine vents, in short the attic spaces had NO venting whatsoever. Yet there was absolutely no sign of any condensation or rot in the attics. I am not trying to state that attic ventilation is not important but there were a lot of homes built without attic insulation and had insulation added in later years that have done just fine without ventilation.

 

Maybe there was enough leakage thru the walls to give it just a little airflow.

 

Well the house was built in 1976 so I would have thought it would have had at least some ventilation in the attic. So, should I do something about it when I reinsulate the attic?

skeeter

 

In my opinion, yes, you should add both low and high venting. Soffits are great IF you can get the holes through and prevent animals from also using them to gain access to the attic AND keep the insulation from blocking the holes. Ridge venting is also best because it is totally passive without the ugliness of mushroom vents or turbines.

 

Hi Skeeter,
Where in CAL are you, there are many different climates there? If you heat a lot in the winter then traditional ventilation is advisable.

Bud

 

I live in Yucaipa(San Bernardino co.), Ca. At 3200 ft elevation. Gets kinda cold in winter, with 1 or 2 snows a year if we are lucky. We do use the heater in the winter when needed.

skeeter

 

Adding soffit holes and screens to keep out the vermits wouldn't be to difficult but adding the ridge vent seems like it would be a problem.

skeeter

 

It is hard to find any serious red flags due to your location as basically you are in a warm climate. Cold is my current -1° with single digit temps for the next 2 weeks. Yes I'm complaining, sorry.

But cold weather attic venting doesn't really apply to you. Ventilation in the summer only provides a little relief from solar heat which you haven't mentioned.

The round pop-in vents are only about 20% efficient for vent are but easy to install and your needs are minimal. If you want to add a few to offset any loss from caulking it would not hurt, but my opinion is, I wouldn't bother. If it were to become a problem you will know it and can add them later.

As for a ridge vent, that decision can wait until you need a new roof.

Bud
https://buildingscience.com/document...ic-ventilation