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Venting: Old Home with new hip roof, long eaves, no venting

2K views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  Windows on Wash 
#1 ·
I'm trying to come up with a solution here. I have a 1920's house with a hip roof that comes to a perfect peak in the center. The house was "flipped" last year, they made the attic space a living space and made knee walls on all the outer edges. I recently purchased it...

They put no ventilation in the knee walls whatsoever, I live in Richmond VA, so you can imagine what that meant for this past summer. I contacted the seller and he says that there was no real way to put in soffit vents the way the house was built. It has these long 2+ foot long eaves that hang down and he says are "sealed off" from the rest of the attic.

I plan on putting in some basic attic vents in each of the knee wall. My question is, budget is an issue, but am I just completely wasting my time by putting in the attic vents in with no proper flow coming in? Would i be further wasting money to put any kind of powered fans with the vents to generate a little more power to the exhaust? Will i literally get 0 discernible gain from any idea like this by not having the proper intake?

I've seen the SmartVent and a few other products made to deal with roofs like this, but there is already a brand new one on it from my purchase and most likely can't afford to cut into that and do something new right now.

I understand theres the "proper" way to fix this and get perfect flow going, but does anyone have some more realistic suggestions that will at least get me close and isn't a multi thousand dollar job?

Thanks for your help!!
 
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#2 ·
Are the knee wall storage areas accessible?

Do you have pictures?

What is the ventilation above the finished bedroom?

If he screwed up the ventilation, he probably is not the best source of information to fix it.

Do not use the PAVs if you can avoid it (and you should be able to)

Feel free to call me to discuss as I have a good friend that lives in Richmond that could take a look at the home for you.
 
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