# Older house, no soffit vents- what to do?



## Brik

From your drawing it looks too close to the shed style roof below to put any soffit vents. It also doesn't look like you have much room on the soffits elsewhere for any vents.

You may actually solve the moisture issue with your insulation. Whats happening is that warm air from your house is meeting the cold roof deck and nails and condensing causing the frost and moisture. If you keep that warm air in the living space you may not have the issue anymore. 

If its only frost on the nails, and not on the under side of the roof deck, and its not dripping when the temp is above freezing, I wouldn't worry about it. I would just check periodically after you insulate to see if things improve or get worse. No sense making more work for yourself right now.


----------



## nebben

My limited Google Sketchup skills make the roof look like there are no eaves. There are eaves, they're just very slim: 3" soffit, then angled aluminum about 10" up to the shingles.

Since I don't see moisture or frost in the attic except this spot, would it be a reasonable to just put in the insulation and go with the "if it isn't broke, then don't fix it" attitude for the rest of the attic? 

I didn't mention before that there is very little insulation at all in the attic right now: maybe 3" of blown in and occasional random lengths of R11 fiberglass. Might all of this escaping heat from the living space into the attic cause it to be dryer now than if it were well insulated, or am I backwards in this thought?

-ben


----------



## Brik

Good job with sketchup actually.

Yea, like I said. Insulate and it may be OK. Just leave an airspace under the roof deck, down to the eaves. Just like you had a vent in the soffit.

I think you may be backwards on your last comment. Its like when you take that cold beverage out of the fridge on a warm day. It drips condensation. The nails are the beverage in your relatively warm attic. Essentially you want the under side of the roof deck to be the same temp as the outside temp.


----------

