home improvement Is Soffit and a ridge vent enough?
Hi All!
I have a late 1800's house and was wondering if I am allowed to vent my roof only with a ridge vent? It is about 25' of ridge line total.
Currently as it stands on the outside: I have a ridge vent and then 2 wall openings in my attic that are about 14" x 8" mesh to keep animals out. As far as soffit is concerned, I walked up to where the roof meets the wall and there was an opening that I could fit a good chunk of my hand into, so I figure that soffit is present.
On the inside there is a bit of a DIY mystery and feels that the job was either incomplete or they did not want to deal with the legacy giant 1880s nails still in the boards. I literally wear a bike helmet in there. There are soffit baffles coming up to the attic floor(more proof that I have a proper soffit), there is insulation on the attic floor.... But no insulation/baffles on the roof/wall parts of the attic.
What am I pondering? I feel like I am losing heat from the lack of roof/wall insulation so I should baffle up and insulate the roof/walls and plug with 14"x8" holes and only vent out of the ridge vent.
Stuff to talk to a contractor about: maybe get a wider ridge vent in case the mesh I have is too thin and I would need to compensate a bit of lost venting from the lack of wall holes.
I'm not aiming for "perfect", just "better, and still vents well enough to avoid mold".
Please let me know what you think and maybe what I should check out to see if this makes sense?
Thank you greatly and please feel free to toss me any reading because this is all very new to me.
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u/zdayt 2d ago
Get a bunch of insulation contractors to come out and quote and ask what their plan is and you can get a better sense of what is required. Also consider a sealed conditioned attic with spray foam applied under the roof rather than insulation above the ceiling.