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I’m having trouble figuring out how my house is supposed to breathe. Here’s the skinny.
I recently purchased a large two-story brick Tudor Revival home, built in 1910. It has a slate roof, with no vents of any kind. It has no overhanging eaves, so no soffit vents, either. It has a wide open attic with windows under the gables, but they have always been kept closed, I am told by observant long-time neighbors. There are no bathroom exhaust fans, but the plaster and wallpaper are in excellent shape.
The house is far from airtight, however. The winter weather has helped me discover LOTS of leaky places — thresholds with no rubber seals, windows and doors with no weatherstripping, fireplace flues that don’t close all the way, metal single-pane windows. The attic, half of which is finished, has only 3-4 inches of ancient rock wool insulation. I have ice dams in several places.
As I winterize, insulate the attic and generally tighten up my house, should I also be ventilating the attic? I don’t want to screw up a system that has “worked,” however inefficiently.
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To avoid another 45 postings on this subject, I suggest that you take a trip back in time, using the search function at the top. In a nutshell, the theme is that if you seal the attic from conditioned air from below and are well insulated, you don't need ventilation.
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I'm having trouble figuring out how my house is supposed to breathe. Here's the skinny.
I recently purchased a large two-story brick Tudor Revival home, built in 1910. It has a slate roof, with no vents of any kind. It has no overhanging eaves, so no soffit vents, either. It has a wide open attic with windows under the gables, but they have always been kept closed, I am told by observant long-time neighbors. There are no bathroom exhaust fans, but the plaster and wallpaper are in excellent shape.
The house is far from airtight, however. The winter weather has helped me discover LOTS of leaky places -- thresholds with no rubber seals, windows and doors with no weatherstripping, fireplace flues that don't close all the way, metal single-pane windows. The attic, half of which is finished, has only 3-4 inches of ancient rock wool insulation. I have ice dams in several places.
As I winterize, insulate the attic and generally tighten up my house, should I also be ventilating the attic? I don't want to screw up a system that has "worked," however inefficiently.