[boatwoman]

I am planning on adding 9.5 inches of fiberglass insulation to my attic that has ridge venting with a gable end vent.. . no soffit venting. I plan to lay it over the existing insulation @ 90 degrees. Because there is no soffit venting should I stuff the insulation all the way to the eave or will that cause a condensation problem?

[ballengerb1]

No, don't stuff insulation there or anywhere. Stuffing causes insulation to loose effectiveness and you really should create a soffit vent. The idea is to let outside air flow into the attic and then up and out. Some other home owner may have covered your vents not knowing the importance.

[boatwoman]

No, don't stuff insulation there or anywhere. Stuffing causes insulation to loose effectiveness and you really should create a soffit vent. The idea is to let outside air flow into the attic and then up and out. Some other home owner may have covered your vents not knowing the importance.

Thank you for your response. Interestingly enough, I had already come to that conclusion (that it should not be "stuffed") and I have done the job already, taking great care to see that no insulation comes in contact with the attic ceiling. There is no soffit venting, however -just a full length ridge vent as well as one gable end vent. This apparently creates sufficient air flow as we have never had any moisture problems from the attic. . So now we have an R value of about 50. . Should be pretty good, I would think. It's hard to tell if the house originally had soffit vents or not as it was re-sided before we bought it. From all appearances when looking down into the eaves from the attic, there never were any vents of that type in place. There is only one gable end vent because the other end of the attic meets another roof section at 90 dgrees and the two attics are sealed off from one another. That attic has two gable end vents and a ridge vent, but that's next year's project!

[ballengerb1]

It is near mpossible to see a soffit vent from the attic, they are outside the exterior wall of the house. A ridge vent and a gable vent are both at the top of the roof and you need fresh outside air entering at the bottom of the attic in the eaves. You can add soffit vents with a hole saw and special round soffit vent plugs or you can cut out a 3"x10" slab every few feet in the soffit. http://www.cornerhardware.com/howto/ht076.html

[boatwoman]

[QUOTE=ballengerb1;1365927]It is near mpossible to see a soffit vent from the attic, they are outside the exterior wall of the house. Very true-- what I was getting at was that there are no air deflectors between the trusses at the eave level.. . never thought about adding soffitt vents. . Might do that using the round plugs. . Thanks!