How To Ventilate An Attic Without Soffits

Smart vent a special roof eaves vent product that provides a 3 4 opening about 6 above the top of the roof drip edge.

How to ventilate an attic without soffits.

They call this a venting drip edge. The molded polystyrene baffles available at home centers and lumberyards for about 1 each form channels that hold insulation at bay and direct incoming air upward. For an attic without soffit vents you may have the option to use gable vents instead. Continuous strip soffit vents allow perfectly even ventilation along the eaves photos 7 and 8 but they re difficult to retrofit in an existing soffit.

One great alternative to a soffit ventilation system is to install an intake vent right at the lower edge of the roof. Attic ventilation works on the principle that heated air naturally rises primarily utilizing two types of vents. Of net free vent area or nfva with 8 x 16 in. So if you did want to ventilate an attic you could use a type of vent called a drip edge vent which would require a little bit of carpentry.

Drip edge vents hang out several inches past the edges of the. Weird attic layouts may be a part of it. 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. With old homes it can be very difficult to properly ventilate the attic for a variety of reasons.

In our project we replaced all our 4 x 16 in. Rectangular vents are the easiest to install photos 4 6. 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. Install special roof intake venting products that work at the lower edge of the roof decking underneath the first course of shingles.

Vents 56 sq. Finally to ensure that the airway to the vent remains open staple a ventilation baffle to the plywood sheathing in each rafter bay. I finally was able to make contact with the manufacturer of the open foam like material used under my ridge as a vent. You d have to extend or actually reshingle the bottom layer of shingles at the edge.

Loyal reader ken has an attic space with only air exhaust points a vented ridge and no air intake. Intake vents located at the lowest part of the roof under the eaves allow cool. But the drip edge vent actually extends that roof line by about 2 inches and creates a continuous soffit. The venting drip edge seems to be the easiest and most common way to go.