Wherefore art thou, soffit vents?

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GibsonGM
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Re: Wherefore art thou, soffit vents?

Post by GibsonGM »

phil wrote:the other thing you can do , depending how space is used up there is to just add a wall vent. I added a blower to blow the hot air out of there and installed a hexagonal vent with wooden louvers on one wall,. it doesn't look too out of place.


Gable end vent? Yup. If it's an unfinished space. You can make/have made any shape you like.

phil
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Re: Wherefore art thou, soffit vents?

Post by phil »

GibsonGM wrote:
phil wrote:the other thing you can do , depending how space is used up there is to just add a wall vent. I added a blower to blow the hot air out of there and installed a hexagonal vent with wooden louvers on one wall,. it doesn't look too out of place.


Gable end vent? Yup. If it's an unfinished space. You can make/have made any shape you like.


yes in my case I have a triangular space at either side. 6' wide the length of the house and then a wall separating the living space. I put roxul in the floor joist which is just 2x4 then insulated the low wall, made 4 access doors. added yes a gable vent, then a box with my AC unit and a blower on top of that that sucks aur from the attic space and I put ducting in the floor joist to expel the air that comes out of the box.
on the other side I want to add just another vent and a fan and a temperature sensor so the fan runs when it's stinking hot in there.
I didn't insulate against the roof.. I thought it might make the roof last longer but I think i need a new one soon anyway.

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GibsonGM
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Re: Wherefore art thou, soffit vents?

Post by GibsonGM »

Oh, that's better, for sure, Phil! If air can get around the roof sheathing, it would surprise people how long it can last. I did the same...a few ppl were pushing me to put in 'cathedral ceilings' in the 2nd floor, with associated spray foam up there....NOPE. Just a regular ceiling with 24" of blown cell on top, and an open attic.

It's so windy here, I had to put 'filter fabric' and a baffle over the west gable vent so my insulation won't blow to the other end, ha ha! Nicely ventilated tho.

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Re: Wherefore art thou, soffit vents?

Post by phil »

Gibson is your attic not populated as living space? your house has about the same configuration as mine. I always wondered if the attic being living space was origional. the stairs up might have been added, i think they were but it seems like it happened pretty shortly after it was built in 1924. I think they added stairs down at the same time. Your attic windows appear in the same place as mine. its a bit low up there, but usable.

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GibsonGM
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Re: Wherefore art thou, soffit vents?

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Hi Phil, I think that's just terminology...you are Canadian, I'm a New Englander! The house is a 'cape cod style', or 'cape'....do they call it that where you are?

They are often referred to as having "1 and 1 half stories", since the 2nd floor has a knee wall and slanted roof. Is this what you are calling "attic space"? To me, it's just the second floor. Mine was unfinished; I built it in and created a 'hobby room', second bathroom, and master 'suite' on the end you can see.

The 'attic' on these would be the low space above the 2nd floor ceiling...about 7' at the peak. In my case, it's not use, so the underside of the roof deck is visible...my insulation is on the 'attic floor', or 2nd story ceiling.

If they tried to insulate up there, the 'pitch'...that could create BIG problems as moisture congregates under the peak, and it's what we are trying to vent out. In my tiny pic, you can see there is a red star on the gable end there...above it, you can JUST make out my gable end vent...one on each end.....the wind comes from that side, the west, at 30 to 40mph often, so it is always free of moisture, ha ha! ;)

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Re: Wherefore art thou, soffit vents?

Post by phil »

I always referred to mine as a craftsman bungalow. Mine has the typical triangular roof braces. It's a little bigger but otherwise very similar. Yes I have called the upstairs the attic. the space behind the low wall was never finished space , it's too low and yes about 7" from attic floor to peak I guess. I use most for my bedrooms and about 1/3 is a U shaped room thanks to the stairwell. I dont'; have water or bathroom upstairs, It would be nice if it did. If I did it all again I would configure it a bit differently and the top floor would be one room but I followed what existed and built closets either side as you get to the top of the stirs from the kitchen.

I do refer to this space as "Attic". the fact that you finished yours seems to indicate to me that I am correct, the stairs were added, I think in the 30's or so. on my house they shifted the kitchen over and hiked the roof up a little to allow the outer wall to move over about 4'. they also added the stairs down. I found the plaster and lath on the wall adjacent to the stairs was finished before the stairway was there so that meant to me that the stairs were added after the fact.

Also my "attic" had Douglas fir flooring but it is narrower than the main floor. my house has a small square vent that was at some point added fairly close to the peak. I can see something above your double windows that might be a vent.

Ive never used the term Cape cod but yes there may be some difference in local dialect. Mine is 1924 and although probably not a sears home , I think some of the sears homes were fairly similar in design. my basement is about 6'4 or so. I wish it were just that bit higher. I have some suport posts in the basement , they run down the center below the peak of the roof.

I feel that everything is really strong structurally with mine. It might not hurt to bolt it down as they can shake off the foundation if there were an earthquake of such magnitude. mine has about a 3 foot perimeter foundation. I think the basement floor was poured later as it is quite smooth, my foundation walls have a lot of big rocks in the concrete. I assume it had a dirt floor when built.

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GibsonGM
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Re: Wherefore art thou, soffit vents?

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I feel like we're going off topic, ha ha! Here in New England, the farmer family would have lived up on the 2nd floor. The kids. Also in the 'ell' over the kitchen, where that other chimney is. There are 2 closed off thimbles for wood stoves, and it does have the pine board flooring (original 1860). It was a dairy farm after the US Civil War. The stairs up are original, too. It goes from 3 feet (1 meter, ha ha) at the knee wall, but in the center of the space it was about 16 feet to the peak.

This is post and beam, no cross braces since they weren't doing things that way yet (until I built in the new ceiling, of course, which is like a deck of 2x6 above one's head). One set of huge hemlock rafters every 8 feet or so. They had pasted pages from the old Sears catalog on the inside of the wall sheathing to try to keep out drafts. Sorry lot they must have been! But that did save a lot of history, and we found tons and tons of period things from wooden starch box tops to business cards, lanterns, hats, hairbrushes, marbles, buttons, letters.....I found an old brassiere too, but my wife wanted no part of trying to save it, LOL...

Yup, in my 'avatar', above the windows you can see a decorative star, and a square vent above that. You can walk around up there (7' in center down to nothing at edges), but I still wanted ventilation. I had to staple furnace filter over the inside of the vent so the very high winds here won't move my insulation all the way to the other end, ha ha!!

It might be ok to tie your house down, Phil, if you have worries. I'm not concerned, but Maine is pretty geologically stable. If the wind hasn't taken it YET, I don't think it will.

Look at that poor oak tree, how it has bowed! It's well over 100 yrs old. So's the maple to its left, I have a photo of it from 1895. Very humble home, but very historical and in a great area as far as privacy, cost of living, way of life, really experiencing nature and so on. This is abundant, fecund place, but you can see that winter is extremely harsh and unforgiving...that is awesome :mrgreen:

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Not a great pic, but this is where we started, a week after moving in 2 yrs ago. just to show how fertile it is in the summer time. Big difference now that the old AC siding is gone, roof painted, windows redone, etc!!
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