# 60 Year Old Home, no Soffits - how do I ventilate??



## dfielding (Jun 3, 2009)

I have a 60 year old two story 2,000 sq foot brick home. The home has a newer roof on it but they did not install a ridge vent.  In the summers it gets extremely hot in the attic causing the upstairs of the house to get hot, obviously!  
Is it worth installing a powered attic fan in the roof considering that I will not get the cross ventilation you would get with a home that has soffits?  I have considered installing soffits but there are gutters installed around the roof so there is no where to cut them in.  There are however roof vents located throughout the roof.  Would these provide enough ventilation if they are only located along the peak of the roof?  
If you recommend an attic fan is there a brand or model you recommend?


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## glennjanie (Jun 4, 2009)

Welcome Dfielding:
It is not too late to install the ridge vent and, I think, it would give the best results. There are also some 2" round aluminum vents that may work below your gutters, if you can get an opening into the attic. Just one in every rafter space will do a lot of good.
Glenn


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## turneyreed (Jun 6, 2009)

dfielding,  A rule of thumb for attic ventilation is 1/150 of the square footage of the attic.  Assuming a 2000 sf attic, then you would need 13.4 sf of ventilation total- both intake and exhaust.  Adding a power ventilator would pull air from inside the house if you do not have enough intake vents.  A 14" x 16" gable vent would provide 1.2 sf of venting adjusted for 1/8" screen.  A 2" round vent provides only 2.4 square inches of venting.  Dividing the 13.4 sf of venting total would mean you would need 6.7 sf of vent for each intake and exhaust.  Intakes should be low in the attic- you could use the blocking between the rafters for round or rectangular vents.  Exhaust venting should be as high as possible.  If you used only 2" round vents for the intake, you would need about 400 of them to provide adequate intake vent area.  Better to try a rectangular version instead.  Assuming a 2 x 6 rafter, you could fit a 4" x 12" vent that would provide 36 square inches of venting- this would drop the number of vents needed to 26.   Then you still need 6.7 sf for the exhaust.  A 2" ridge vent would need to be about 40 feet of ridge.  It could also be in conjunction with gable vents if needed.  Hope this give you more information to work with.  Good luck.   Reed B. Turney


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## GBR (Jun 6, 2009)

If you go ridge vents, check the NFA (net free area) listed as they range from 8-18 per lineal foot.    http://files.buildsite.com/dbderived-f/airvent/derived_files/derived20936.pdf

Read this for NFA and wind washing:    Audel Complete Building Construction - Google Book Search

You might need this, if no soffits, just gutters:   Cor-A-Vent : IN-Vent      Be safe, G


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