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Re: OT: How to deal with ice dams? Posted by Snowmobile [Email] (#686) [Profile/Gallery] (more from Snowmobile) on Tue, 18 Feb 2014 11:49:38 In Reply to: Re: OT: How to deal with ice dams?, Bill Homer [Profile/Gallery] , Tue, 18 Feb 2014 11:22:16 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
ridge vents are great for cathedral ceilings where you channel air from the soffit to ridge. This is the best way to ventilate a roof because it ensures a uniform continuous flow under the sheathing from top to bottom... or at least until it snows and covers the ridge! But the principle is in general good, and works in a normal attic also, so long as baffles are installed at the lower part of the rafter bays to prevent insulation from filling the 2" below the sheathing.
(the other way to properly insulate a cathedral is a "hot roof" - a highly insulating vapour barrier right under the sheathing - ie foam, in sheets or blown)
Old houses vary in terms of soffits. Some have solid soffits that may leak air (and vermin) in various ways, but are inadequate to pass air up properly under the sheathing. Others are completely open. Just depends. And if someone put that stamped aluminum soffit vent crap on, it could still be completely unvented (ie cosmetic - a euphemism imho for that stuff).
In your house, soffit venting would likely need to pass through a gap in the sloped ceilings of the upper floor and possibly through a plate. It is probably unvented, with a few leaky/poorly insulated joints at the plates. So the gable vents are probably just fine, but probably a centrally located max-air vent would be better for 2 reasons: 1) in winter, they don't get buried in snow and 2) in summer, on hot calm days, you'd get better drafting of air from the gables to the middle of the attic (placing venting near the gable ends short circuits this to some degree). See image of a max air and link below... fwiw, I much prefer how a ridge vent looks. It also may not be worth changing at this point.
http://www.ventilation-maximum.com/English/products.html
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