I live in a small square house.
How to vent an attic without eaves.
Attic ventilation keeps your house cooler in summer and it prevents moisture from building up in winter and ruining your roof framing and insulation.
It begins with soffit vents that inhale outside air necessary to create an airflow that moves warm attic air out the roof vents.
In a properly designed and installed attic ventilation system air flow travels from intake vents to exhaust vents flushing out warm humid air along roof deck think underside of roof steel.
Install special roof intake venting products that work at the lower edge of the roof decking underneath the first course of shingles.
Once the air enters the soffit it usually proceeds through an air chute or some other opening along the underside of the roof into the attic where it helps push warm attic air out the roof vents see how attic venting works below.
Smart vent a special roof eaves vent product that provides a 3 4 opening about 6 above the top of the roof drip edge.
Thankfully there are some ways around this dilemma.
However if two or more different types of exhaust vents gable and ridge are used above a shared attic air space one exhaust vent will likely to interrupt air flow to the other.
Now that i know the ins and outs of attics i wanted to share more about what i ve learned about venting your attic if you don t have eaves.
An important part of installing any system of ventilation into your roof system is to make sure that there is a point of entry and a point of exit for airflow.
With a soffit venting is not much of a challenge.
It s a classic post war ranch house built in the 50s to meet the needs of the soldiers returning from ww2 and the needs of their growing families.
The main idea of the ridge vent is to act together with soffit venting to properly ventilate the attic.
However if the home has no soffit it is quite a different matter.
For an attic without soffit vents you may have the option to use gable vents instead.
How to vent an attic with no eaves.
Typically you would have a gable vent on each end of the attic.
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.
Venting solutions for roofs with no overhang or soffit.
Hot air exhaust vents located at the peak of the roof allow hot air to escape.
When hot air rises up through the soffit venting it then keeps rising all the way up to the ridge vent.
As a homeowner it is important that you review the soffit areas of the home for soffit vents.