House with no soffits
R&T
I'm looking at a house that is 100 years old. It's 2 stories with an
attic you can walk upright in. There are 2 gable end vents. That's it.
There are no soffits. Really. I hear that is a "dutch" style. Is this ok?
thanks
rich
Budys back
<stonecrie.R...@earthlink.net> writes:
The answer is in your question. The home has been there 100 years! Any sign of
moisture damage in the attic or 2nd floor ceilings or walls?
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R&T
In article <20000402222118...@nso-fv.aol.com>,
budy...@aol.com.net.org says...
LarryOH
ventilation, we installed louvered strips along facer board, with a cutout
in the board, for air movement. The house has gutters, so we spaced the
gutter out one inch in front of louvers. My electric bills, also thanks to a
new a/c unit, are significantly reduced.
Eric Salathe
> I'm looking at a house that is 100 years old. It's 2 stories with an
> attic you can walk upright in. There are 2 gable end vents. That's it.
> There are no soffits. Really. I hear that is a "dutch" style. Is this ok?
I assume you are asking whether it is OK not to have soffit vents, not
whether no soffits is OK. I presume that you have no overhang, not that
there is an overhang without soffits -- ie to let birds into the attic.
Soffit vents are some new-fangled idea. Sure they're a nice thing, but
many many houses don't have them -- only new ones or those where vents
were added in renovation.
What is truly surprising is that this might be the biggest problem you
find in a 100-year-old house. Adding soffit vents is on my to-do list
for our newly purchaced Victorian; I may get to it in 10 years or so.
Eric Salathe
Seattle
ren...@my-deja.com
combination of people not wanting to pay for attics with living space,
very much wanting "volume" ceilings, needing energy efficiency,
protection from insects, and liking humidified warm air heat have lead
to houses that need them.
Does your Victorian have an attic? Windows up there? Gable end vents? If
so then you don't really need soffit vents. The idea is that you get
plenty of air moving around to keep to roof cool year round. A roof that
is warm in the winter will be prone to ice dams. A roof that is hot is
the summer will prematuraly bake modern shingles.
Remember those "Blondie & Dagwood" movies were the Bumsteads would have
bees or wasps in their attic? Well designed soffit vents make this
unlikely to happen.
A gable-end vent can be "too efficeint" a ventilator in winter, actaully
chilling the whole rafter space, when all that is needed is for the roof
deck to be cool. That's the idea with rafter air-channels. Air flows
from soffit to ridge vent, and the rest of the "attic space" is
realtively stagnant. That saves money on heat.
Does your victorian have humidified warm air and/or whirlpools? Most new
houses do. This really drives moisture around the house. Plaster walls
in older homes were a better barrier too. Drywall can allow tremendous
amounts of air to leak past a poorly finished ceiling/wall joint.
Mositure is carried into the unheated space and condensation problems
are the result.
BTW there are drip-edge vents that are designed for homes without any
overhang, though they have minimal flow per foot...
In article <38EA4E5F...@atmos.washington.edu>,
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.