richard karl
06-15-2011, 11:32 AM
Hello out there in “Buildingland”
I am new here with sole thanks to the heroic patience of Brian Hannigan who led me through what appeared to me to be another universe. So here I am, full of confusion and desperately looking for help in details regarding completing the unfinished house I bought.
I have this question.
The trusses (I believe it is called a 4/12 pitch) sit atop the top plate (I am losing my memory a bit so I may have that name wrong.) Atop the top board of the walls.. The top member of the truss goes out and ends on a fascia board. There is no soffit enclosure. There is a space between the top plate of the wall and the underside of the roof. The space measures less than an inch. Maybe it is 3/4 inch. I should go out there right now and measure it but it would be difficult at this moment.
Now at each end of the house (house measures 20x48 ft) up right under the roof peak there is a metal ventilator (again, I should go there and measure it and again it would be difficult today. It is very hot here (but dry) and I am in less than great physical condition and feeling rather poorly today, and in order to measure that ventilator I would need a ladder that needs to be brought out there and I just cannot take on the task today. As I was saying – metal ventilator and it looks to be about 16x24.
I have been advised to leave those open 3/4 inch high spaces at the top of the wall as they are. (for ventilation) But I do not see how they would work because I have been told the insulation will block those spaces anyway. It does get hot here, max temp range this area from about 20F to 105F, But it is frequently very windy in my particular location.
I researched bird stopping but there is not enough vertical room for even one-inch diameter holes. As I see it, a soffit if I were to build one would not do any good because of the problem of insulation plugging up all those ¾ inch spaces.
The problem is that there is too little clearance between the top plate and the underside of the roof. If the clearance was enough for a vertical blocking board then holes could be cut into it.
I saw a post on this site with the formula for ventilation, but got kind of lost in it. It appears that the existing end wall ventilators are just a tad small. If I made them be over 2.6 square feet would that be sufficient considering the prevailing winds, or given the fact that it is not always windy would that not work? Would I have to somehow create more ventilation? Would more ventilators at the end walls do any good? Would it be possible for example to cut in a horizontal row of ventilators at each end wall at a height just above the insulation?Perhaps ventilators about 2 inches high and maybe a foot wide and enough of them to bring the total ventilation at each end of the house up to maybe 4 square feet ?
I hope I am not asking too long of a question.
I am new here with sole thanks to the heroic patience of Brian Hannigan who led me through what appeared to me to be another universe. So here I am, full of confusion and desperately looking for help in details regarding completing the unfinished house I bought.
I have this question.
The trusses (I believe it is called a 4/12 pitch) sit atop the top plate (I am losing my memory a bit so I may have that name wrong.) Atop the top board of the walls.. The top member of the truss goes out and ends on a fascia board. There is no soffit enclosure. There is a space between the top plate of the wall and the underside of the roof. The space measures less than an inch. Maybe it is 3/4 inch. I should go out there right now and measure it but it would be difficult at this moment.
Now at each end of the house (house measures 20x48 ft) up right under the roof peak there is a metal ventilator (again, I should go there and measure it and again it would be difficult today. It is very hot here (but dry) and I am in less than great physical condition and feeling rather poorly today, and in order to measure that ventilator I would need a ladder that needs to be brought out there and I just cannot take on the task today. As I was saying – metal ventilator and it looks to be about 16x24.
I have been advised to leave those open 3/4 inch high spaces at the top of the wall as they are. (for ventilation) But I do not see how they would work because I have been told the insulation will block those spaces anyway. It does get hot here, max temp range this area from about 20F to 105F, But it is frequently very windy in my particular location.
I researched bird stopping but there is not enough vertical room for even one-inch diameter holes. As I see it, a soffit if I were to build one would not do any good because of the problem of insulation plugging up all those ¾ inch spaces.
The problem is that there is too little clearance between the top plate and the underside of the roof. If the clearance was enough for a vertical blocking board then holes could be cut into it.
I saw a post on this site with the formula for ventilation, but got kind of lost in it. It appears that the existing end wall ventilators are just a tad small. If I made them be over 2.6 square feet would that be sufficient considering the prevailing winds, or given the fact that it is not always windy would that not work? Would I have to somehow create more ventilation? Would more ventilators at the end walls do any good? Would it be possible for example to cut in a horizontal row of ventilators at each end wall at a height just above the insulation?Perhaps ventilators about 2 inches high and maybe a foot wide and enough of them to bring the total ventilation at each end of the house up to maybe 4 square feet ?
I hope I am not asking too long of a question.