Roof ventilation / soffit vent 

Depends where you live. Down south it's a little different

How do residents live in a hot attic?

Here in Texas I’ve seen 5 year old roofs burnt up with heavy blistering from no ventilation. We always add it when we do roofs whether they want it or not lol

My roofer guys did the same, i have to still cut more holes to increase air flow

Add intake vents at the eaves is the easiest or redo your entire soffit and add baffles in the attic.

This home originally had wood sofit. Whoever did the siding later, I'm sure, did not cut it in. Most of the time I see it around here the guy installing the vinyl turns a blind eye and covers it up.

@@GrandRoofingInc the wood soffit had vents? I've done that before but only used the mesh panels where the vents were. Popped out the old metal vents and cut in a few new vent holes.

instead of opening the whole thing should i cut a 12 inch run and then put back the vinly vented soffits?

Check out the ventilation calculator online. Will tell you how much you need. I ended up cutting out as much of the wood between each rafter as I could. My soffits are only 4in wide so the few holes I drilled out weren't enough. Hence the calculator I found on roofing websites. Once I did that my attic temp dropped. Proper ridge vent I had installed includes an external baffle as well. Lot's of good info online just have to find it. Good luck

We had box vents, but we needed more air exchange so we added a ridge vent. No Ill effects after five years.

You could cut the holes in, and make sure to replace the soffit venting. Also make sure the insulation in the attic is not covering the holes you cut.

If you can't do a ridge + soffit vent, that's probably your next best bet. I'm getting a ridge + hidden shingle vents because my soffits are closed like this. Roofers don't want to mess with soffit unless they replace it.

@@mae2759 soffit doesn't pay half as good as roofing either in my experience so that's why I don't like doing it as well but yes I agree ridge venting would be my best option. I do that in metal roofing for homes whenever is available because it is the most leakproof roof vent other than gable wall vents that aren't on the roof

Good question. I'd like to know the answer as well.

I don't see why you couldn't. Are the soffits open or closed?

I just slid plastic baffles in and stapled 1 end so I wouldn’t have to do all that nasty cutting in such a confined space. I stapled them to the roof deck with 1/4 inch staples so they wouldn’t go through. Sometimes you have to improvise.

@@stevetaxpayer6664 yea you can do this, it is best if you cut it out the soffits and then at night have someone shine a flash light in the attic at each location and make sure you see the light soyou know a good path is there

Did you ever get an answer to this?

I have been doing soffit for 18 years so i speak from experience. The general gist is to have one square foot of ventilation per every 150 square feet of attic. So if your attic is 1000 square feet divide that by 150 which comes out to 6.667. That is the general rule. The way we do it, do 3 vents per side and cut them as long as your arm reach. In your case if it is a 1000 square foot house that has four sides it would be 12 vents cut bigger then a square foot. This has always worked and it is more then required but like i said this is from experience and we have never been called back to a job to cut more vents. Some people want to remove all the wood and thats fine but it will cost. I charge per vent cut and i make sure it functions, when someone wants it all removed i charge much higher because it is a want and not a need. Hope this helps

@@draganbojat3431 I've been reading up on this subject for about a month and learning it all and your post has some of the most information out there. Along with this youtube video... There is very little info for crappy houses like mine and elizabeth's that have no holes or very few holes. Thank you so much. I have a square foot hole every several feet and a 1700 squarefoot living space. I am getting water marks on the ceiling next to the exterior walls and it is condensation as I've studied it and watched it for about 3 months now. Would you recommend I go down the line of my house and drill some circle holes in it every foot to get your recommended total square footage?

@@draganbojat3431 how do you make sure it functions?

You really need to be cautious when it comes to ventilation. More ventilation is not necessarily better. You want the intake and exhaust matched. And they have to be in the right location as well. Gable events aren't the best. It really depends on where you have intake and exhaust. Cause they can pull from different areas they're not intended to.

@@GrandRoofingInc so you recommend just fully soffits that air outside air into the attic then the ridge vents should be good enough. I am getting liens replaced because the vents here the holes are pained mostly which sides the attic to get to 130F in the summer plus the AHU is up there.