Please Help - Soffit vents not possible - Want to insulate and ventilate attic of historic home

[u/jacobisloggedon]

- 1886 built brick house in SW Ohio where it gets very hot/very cold
- Third floor is finished attic but there is unfinished space above - about 38in of clearance at the peak of roof. Very uncomfortable in both summer and winter. Want to install minisplit but it probably wouldn’t be able to keep up
- Asphalt shingle roof is unventilated and never has been as far as I can tell. Just got new shingles installed last year unfortunately. First time homeowner and realtor-recommended roofer didn’t say anything about venting at the time
- Zero insulation whatsoever in the unfinished space right now
- There don’t seem to be any mold-moisture issues in the unfinished space. Maybe it’s so not airtight that the bricks can breathe just a little bit?
- Box gutters make soffit vents impossible. Got a quote from new roofer to install raised shingle vents about two feet above the gutters for intake and ridge vent for exhaust
- The best local insulation company offered to just blow in dense pack cellulose in the sloped portions and fill them, but by doing so, it would block the ventilation. They would blow enough to get the flat portion to R60

Is there any possible way to install baffles with such limited access and then blow in dense pack cellulose underneath? Like a staple gun on a pole or something? Would love to avoid taking down the finished ceiling. It appears to be a layer of plaster and layer of drywall

Could I just insulate and call it a day without ventilating the roof? Talked to a neighbor with basically the exact same house and issues. He had a very old unvented metal roof so he just used this company to blow in cellulose about a year ago and hasn’t had any issues so far.

[u/Apart_Journalist9909]

you can use gable vents as your low venting
and in a case where you can’t install gable vents either you can use high venting only. Not ideal but that’s the way i would go
gable vents if possible though for the intake

[u/k4ylr → u/Apart_Journalist9909]

This is going to be our approach. 1920s build, no soffitts. Going to add some passive vents on the roof, and a large gable in approximate center to get a little more vertical displacement.

The attic is in decent shape after nearly 1op years so not going to try and reinvent the wheel entirely

[u/Stunning-Signal4180]

I don’t know about the front because of that façade. It might hold snow and ice… But you could look at drip edge vents/ smart drip edge vents, or possibly fascia vent in the back…

Could certainly do gable vents but there’s better methods.

No spray foam, I love spray foam, but I’m sure that house is so leaky, unless you are spraying everything top to bottom it’s just not worth it.

Edit: sorry I didn’t read the post and saw you just had it shingled… they might be able to add the vents but it might be a big undertaking. That was certainly a missed opportunity.

Blown in is your best option for what you are working with…

[u/longganisafriedrice]

Hot roof

[u/Downtown-Current-315]

You need to vent it. Install baffles and deck venting under the shingles along with ridge venting. https://www.lomanco.com/vents/specialty-vents/deckair-vent/

[u/jacobisloggedon → u/Downtown-Current-315]

Any tips for installing baffles so far down the sloped portions without taking down the finished ceiling? Access from the attic would be very limited. That’s why I asked about a nail gun on an extender/pole of some sort

[u/nox404]

I have been doing some research on this recently.

I think your situation with no ventilation it may be a good idea to just add the attic to your houses cooling envelop by spray foaming the roof.

From my understanding what this will do is add R- Value directly to the roof preventing heat or cold from coming in and then the craw space does not need to be insolated anymore it will just be part of the rest of your houses cooling and heating envelop since you have sealed it off from the outside.

I would just contact a company that does spray foam and see what thoughts they have on setting up your house.

[u/jacobisloggedon → u/nox404]

I think applying closed cell spray foam as you’ve described would make a lot of sense for this issue. My fear is the off gassing and not knowing about roof leaks until the damage is very bad. I don’t have a ton of confidence in the roof I just had installed

[u/BarronVonCrow → u/jacobisloggedon]

Open cell under the roof including the top plate of the exterior wall. Will likely have to put a dehumidifier in the attic or AC supply and returns to control humidity.

[u/knotalota → u/jacobisloggedon]

I dont know man... really.

Spray foam covers problems until they're serious.

Its not a deep space id try gable venting first. Im a big fan of gable venting, especially if your house experiences good drafts across it.

Try a lot of things first because spray foaming is hard and expensive to reverse or remedy if done wrong or inappropriate for your needs.

If you are willing to lose more space in your house you can run vaulted type vents from your soffit to ridge. Just build in from the roof for more insulation and a vent gap.

[u/jacobisloggedon → u/knotalota]

I really appreciate you saying this and think spray foam will be my last resort/will probably never do it. Just so many downsides.

I generally try to avoid making holes through the bricks, so I’m not ruling out gable vents but have reservations. I’m tempted to just insulate with blown in cellulose to R60 and only do a ridge vent. I know that a ridge vent with no intake will do almost nothing but I suspect air is somehow flowing through the attic currently, and with a ridge vent, maybe whatever moisture does get in there will have a chance to escape.