Hi all,

I have a 1905 home that does not have any soffit vents but does have exhaust vents at the ridge crest. As you can imaging the house is very drafty. I’d like to add circular soffit vents through the blocking between the 2″x4″ roof rafters (blocking sits on the top plate of the exterior wall). The house has a hipped roof with exposed rafter tails on all four sides. In order to get close to the 50/50 intake to exhaust ratio, I would need to add 2x 2″ diameter vents to each rafter bay (rafters are 24″ OC), but I am concerned about drilling a hole that large in the 2″x4″ blocking (leaving 3/4″ wood above and below the hole). Will this be a problem? The next size smaller vent cover (1.5″) has ~half the NFA and would need 4x holes per rafter bay.

Thanks,

Tim in the PNW