Old School Ventilation

I guess they never heard of ridge vent in 1956.

These old wooden gable vents were the bomb back then.

There is one on each end of the house ( both are leaking ).

In a few days they will both be at the landfill and two new wind turbines installed on the back side.

I didn't like them either until some years ago when the light weight 14 inch version came out with ball bearings.

The 12 inch turbines are still garbage but the 14 will begin to spin around just from the heat rising out and they work very well.

The ventilation on this house has been greatly improved. Not to mention the leaks permanently eradicated.

I could have installed her a couple 1600 cfm pro3 fans that would of sucked the insulation right off the top of the ceiling but she didn't want to pay for an electrician to run the wiring to them.

The warranty is "Lifetime".

Imagine that! ;)

Willie Never been a big fan " pun intended" of the Turbo ventilators. The older homes have the ridge beams so ridge vents aren't an option. What little I have read on the turbo indicated not much air flow. Just a thought from.... B) :) :) B) Deep Down In Florida Where The Sun Shines Damn Near Every Day

Here's some more pics of the job progress.

There was an old horn type alarm under one of the gable vents. Fortunately it was not in use anymore.

They are notorious leakers as well!

Large gable vents like that have two problems. One, with any wind, airflow is in one vent, out the other, with very little convection through the soffit vents.

The other problem is, to bats, they look like an apartment building.

Those old gable vents are still being built out west here. They are incorporated in to the dutch gable ends. The problem with electric power ventsing is the fact that they rob the house of the cool or hot air, depending on the time of the year, via electrical outlets, bathroom fans and any other pentration that goes thru the walls or ceilings. Most of the time the intact is blocked from insulation so the only other source of air is from inside the house.

Back in the day, when the homeowner's asked me what was the best ventilation, I would tell them that a good strong whole house fan installed on one end of the gable vents was it.

That was before ridge vent, power vents, wind turbines, etc. became more popular.

Today when they ask me this, I tell them it doesn't matter which kind is used. What's important is that you have adequate attic ventilation of whatever type you prefer.

Then I go into the whole intake and exhaust routine.

When they ask about ridge vent, I tell them if you have a long straight main ridge ( hips excluded ) then ridge vent is a good option.

If you don't then power vents or wind turbines will work well.

When my father built his house, he screened in the whole gable ends and blocked out the siding so that all of the attic was vented. It worked great! We too had one of those whole house fans and it worked fine. Kind of hard to insulate them though. Energy was cheap then. Fuel oil was 10 cents a gallon with no road tax.

OS, did you build these? :P

Very true natty and the funniest part is they are just as easy to tear off the roof and deck in as they are to work around with the shingles. :laugh:

The hole under them is usually very small. I just use 3/4 plywood laid on 3 rafters or more in place of the one by's, so one piece of wood and it's ready to go.

This house has continuous soffit vents already in place all the way around.

The leaks will be permanently eradicated and the ventilation much improved at the same time.

The common method of cooling back in the 50s was a whole house fan. Those old roof vents were crucial to exhausting the air. Most homes have lost those fans but some are still around. I try to talk the homeowner into removing those pains if they have removed their fan. Most roofers, I have found, don't care for the hassle of repairing the deck so they just slop on a roof around those vents and they eventually leak anyway.

Hey, that is my name!