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Building Construction - Building Construction Industry Discussions.
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Posted by ladasky@my-deja.com on November 28, 2006, 2:05 am
Hi, folks,
About once every year or so, when the wind blows just right, I can get
water dripping from the tops of two window frames in my house. These
two windows are located directly beneath gable vents in my attic.
Every time I see the drips, I think that there's something wrong with
the windows -- and then I remember! The leaks happen rarely enough
that I usually forget about them completely, until the next time
(which, in this case, was yesterday). Maybe I'll follow through this
time?
I recently had a solar PV system installed and, while I had the roofers
up there, I had them install a ridge vent. The PV engineer had some
background in solar thermal as well as PV, and told me that the ridge
vent would improve passive convection in the attic. It seems to have
worked. It's cooler in the house during the summer than it was before.
The engineer told me that I could make the system work even better if
I sealed off my gable vents. With the gable vents closed off, air
would only be able to enter the attic space through the soffit vents.
Supposedly, this configuration would enhance the chimney effect in the
attic space.
So now, I have two possible reasons to seal off the gable vents. My
questions are:
1) Do these reasons sound valid to you?
2) Why am I getting water in my gable vents at all? The winds here are
not exactly gale-force. Is this a design flaw? Is there an
installation problem I should be looking for? The house was built in
1970, and the vents are original construction.
3) If I close off the vents, are there right and wrong ways to do it?
Thanks for your help!
+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+
| Ladasky Home Solar, Inc.: blowing sunshine up your |
| power grid since March 24, 2005. Fiat lux! |
+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+
| Uptime Downtime kWh generated kWh consumed |
| 612 days 6.5 hours 11244 11501 |
+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+
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Posted by SJC on November 28, 2006, 2:18 am
I would find out where the water is really coming from before I did anything to
the vents.
> Hi, folks,
>
> About once every year or so, when the wind blows just right, I can get
> water dripping from the tops of two window frames in my house. These
> two windows are located directly beneath gable vents in my attic.
> Every time I see the drips, I think that there's something wrong with
> the windows -- and then I remember! The leaks happen rarely enough
> that I usually forget about them completely, until the next time
> (which, in this case, was yesterday). Maybe I'll follow through this
> time?
>
> I recently had a solar PV system installed and, while I had the roofers
> up there, I had them install a ridge vent. The PV engineer had some
> background in solar thermal as well as PV, and told me that the ridge
> vent would improve passive convection in the attic. It seems to have
> worked. It's cooler in the house during the summer than it was before.
> The engineer told me that I could make the system work even better if
> I sealed off my gable vents. With the gable vents closed off, air
> would only be able to enter the attic space through the soffit vents.
> Supposedly, this configuration would enhance the chimney effect in the
> attic space.
>
> So now, I have two possible reasons to seal off the gable vents. My
> questions are:
>
> 1) Do these reasons sound valid to you?
>
> 2) Why am I getting water in my gable vents at all? The winds here are
> not exactly gale-force. Is this a design flaw? Is there an
> installation problem I should be looking for? The house was built in
> 1970, and the vents are original construction.
>
> 3) If I close off the vents, are there right and wrong ways to do it?
>
> Thanks for your help!
>
>
> +-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+
> | Ladasky Home Solar, Inc.: blowing sunshine up your |
> | power grid since March 24, 2005. Fiat lux! |
> +-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+
> | Uptime Downtime kWh generated kWh consumed |
> | 612 days 6.5 hours 11244 11501 |
> +-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+
|
|
Posted by John Reddy on November 28, 2006, 7:34 am
Are you sure there are soffit vents? Houses are not usually constructed
with both soffit vents and gable vents. It's not necessary and it can
acutally cause rain or snow to be drawn in through the gable vents.
I would check to make sure soffit vents exist before sealing the gable
vents.
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Posted by on November 28, 2006, 1:10 pm
> Are you sure there are soffit vents? Houses are not usually constructed
> with both soffit vents and gable vents. It's not necessary and it can
> acutally cause rain or snow to be drawn in through the gable vents.
My current house has no gables ;-)
My previous homes had both soffit and gable vents.
> I would check to make sure soffit vents exist before sealing the gable
> vents.
I had a rain problem with some windows. It wasn't associated with vents.
Water would sheet down the wall above the windows, and pool on the window
frame, running freely through crack where there should have been some
caulking.
This would only happen on a gable end because the top of the window frame
was shielded by the eaves on the other walls.
--
---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5
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Posted by sylvan butler on November 28, 2006, 5:39 pm
> Are you sure there are soffit vents? Houses are not usually constructed
> with both soffit vents and gable vents. It's not necessary and it can
Funny, everyone else I've talked with about this thought the soffit and
gable vents went together, and you did not need other roof vents.
My current home (built mid-1970's) has both soffit and gable vents.
Originally it had no roof vents, but a large attic fan was added in the
1980's. Several passive roof vents were added during a re-roof ca 1992.
sdb
--
Wanted: Omnibook 800 & accessories, cheap, working or not
sdbuse1 on mailhost bigfoot.com
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>
> About once every year or so, when the wind blows just right, I can get
> water dripping from the tops of two window frames in my house. These
> two windows are located directly beneath gable vents in my attic.
> Every time I see the drips, I think that there's something wrong with
> the windows -- and then I remember! The leaks happen rarely enough
> that I usually forget about them completely, until the next time
> (which, in this case, was yesterday). Maybe I'll follow through this
> time?
>
> I recently had a solar PV system installed and, while I had the roofers
> up there, I had them install a ridge vent. The PV engineer had some
> background in solar thermal as well as PV, and told me that the ridge
> vent would improve passive convection in the attic. It seems to have
> worked. It's cooler in the house during the summer than it was before.
> The engineer told me that I could make the system work even better if
> I sealed off my gable vents. With the gable vents closed off, air
> would only be able to enter the attic space through the soffit vents.
> Supposedly, this configuration would enhance the chimney effect in the
> attic space.
>
> So now, I have two possible reasons to seal off the gable vents. My
> questions are:
>
> 1) Do these reasons sound valid to you?
>
> 2) Why am I getting water in my gable vents at all? The winds here are
> not exactly gale-force. Is this a design flaw? Is there an
> installation problem I should be looking for? The house was built in
> 1970, and the vents are original construction.
>
> 3) If I close off the vents, are there right and wrong ways to do it?
>
> Thanks for your help!
>
>
> +-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+
> | Ladasky Home Solar, Inc.: blowing sunshine up your |
> | power grid since March 24, 2005. Fiat lux! |
> +-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+
> | Uptime Downtime kWh generated kWh consumed |
> | 612 days 6.5 hours 11244 11501 |
> +-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+