Does soffit on house w/vented attic + metal roof in CZ 2 need to be vented?
The underside of the roof overhang on this house is ugly so I started installing 11/32″ ply to cover it. Then I remembered, this would be soffit, and soffit is typically vented, does mine need to be vented? I Googled but the answers were generally that venting is required to help exhaust heat from a hot attic, but that makes no sense to me because this area isn’t connected to the attic, except up at the ridge, and even then only on two sides of the house. I would be happy to leave an ~8″ wide gap in the ply under the ridge if that will help.
I can also leave a 1/4″ gap on the low side of each installation so any condensed water can drain, but I don’t know whether that’s enough.
If I did want to vent on the north side of the house, it seems I would have to vent each and every rafter bay.
Details:
• Climate Zone 2 (Austin, TX)
• House constructed in 1955
• Metal roof
• No roof insulation (attic insulation is cellulose)
• Gable vents on 2 sides of attic, east+west
• Soffit on the north side would screw into rafters
• On east+west sides I installed 1″ furring strips so the ply wouldn’t hit the nails that are poking down through the roof decking boards
GBA Detail Library
A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part
Replies
michaelbluejay,
Right now it looks like your attic is vented entirely by the two gable vents. Typically vents like those up near the ridge are supplemented by venting at the soffits, but if your roof is performing fine and has no moisture issues, you are fine to leave things as they are and cover the soffits and rakes with whatever material you want.