No soffit vents but...

Originally Posted By: rdawes
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brick instead of the normal weep hole spacing. My theory is that the builder planned that the many weep holes would provide ventilation up between the brick veneer and the sheathing to the attic. The attic did have baffles to keep the blown insulation away from the edges of the attic.


The house was a zero lot line variety where one side sat on the lot line and was about 1900 sq ft.

And to make matters more interesting, the bathroom and laundry room exhaust fan vent lines disappear into the insulation near the eves and there was no visible termination for those to be found anywhere. Possibly venting moist air down between the wall and the brick???

[ Image: Exhaust line ]

Doing a few back of the napkin calculations (yes I know that HI are not engineeres but I can't help myself) leads me to believe that about 1000 weep holes would be needed to provide the necessary ventilation area and there weren't over 200 weep holes around that house.

Anyone seen this before? Comments?

Thanks,
Ron

p.s. based on the houses on either side, it seems to be the standard practice for this builder in this development.


Originally Posted By: jpope
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Looks like crap. SOP certainly does not make it right. Not to mention the inadequately secured NM cable and the apparent extension cord.


Ventilation is covered in IRC R806.


--
Jeff Pope
JPI Home Inspection Service
"At JPI, we'll help you look better"
(661) 212-0738

Originally Posted By: away
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Ronald,


Did you look at the drip edge closely? Could it have been vented drip edge like this?

That particular brand kind of sticks out and I am not implying you can't see just that another brand may be better at stealth. ![icon_biggrin.gif](upload://iKNGSw3qcRIEmXySa8gItY6Gczg.gif)


--
Andrew Way
Keystone Residential Inspection Services PLLC
817.441.9598
www.keystoneinspections.com

Originally Posted By: rdawes
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Andrew,


That's a neat product but on this house the drip edges were standard and did not provide venting.

Jeff,

I agree that builder SOP certainly does not make it OK. BTW, that's not an extension cord but a #8 cable to the AC unit on that side.

Thanks guys,
Ron


Originally Posted By: mcyr
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icon_smile.gif icon_smile.gif


Ron; This is quite a unique design theory at such it is.

I would be curious to find out where this builder picked up this new design technology if that is possible. This design appears to violate every standard there is on moisture intrusion, and proper attic ventilation.

In all my years of building, I would have to say that nothing approaches this design evolution.

I guess if you called it out, you did what you had to do.
This Contractor, needs to be educated by someone if he still continues to build like this. (Where are the code officials for those areas?) Dunkin Donut? ha. ha.

Marcel


Originally Posted By: dedwards
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I have to agree with Marcel on this. The baffles appear to be installed down flush with the roof sheathing not creating the “funnel” for the outside air to travel up the roof sheathing towards the ridge vent but of course w/o soffits vents it doesn’t matter because the ventilation system is only half there. The ridge vents are going to provide little ventilation w/o some source of outside air. Some heat will dissipate through but not very effectively. I usually find just the opposite, the ridge vents were installed without the roofing felt being removed over the ridge gap. Looks nice but pretty much useless. Also if there is no soffits the bathroom vent fans are pumping hot moisture laden air into the soffit cavity with no place to go. I thought it looked like extension cord too. I have seen the newer orange and yellow insulated cables but this just at first glance looked like extension cord.


Originally Posted By: mcyr
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icon_smile.gif :LoL:


Looked at the photo again, because it seemed so unique, and noticed that the PVC pipe in the photo must be the condensate drain for the A/C.

Hey. why not, this brick cavity can handle anything. ha. ha.

Marcel


Originally Posted By: rdawes
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icon_biggrin.gif


Actually that is the line from the secondary drain pan under the AC and it does terminate properly over a window. At least there was one thing OK.

On the subject of inspectors for the town that his house was in: I ran into one while doing a final inspection on new construction. He said he had to do 40 houses a day! That's maybe 10-15 minutes per house.


Originally Posted By: dedwards
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Ronald,


That sounds like pretty much the story across the country.


Originally Posted By: jonofrey
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Ditto everyones comments here Ron. Looks like some fool forgot the soffit vents and with the exhaust fan venting to the soffit, well, that’s not good.


I like all the duravent baffles in the rafter bays though. If you had soffit vents, they would work real good! ![icon_lol.gif](upload://zEgbBCXRskkCTwEux7Bi20ZySza.gif) Usually they only put them into ever other rafter bay. Wow, they went the extra mile.


--
Inspection Nirvana!

We're NACHI. Get over it.

Originally Posted By: rdawes
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the soffit vents; for whatever reason they planned it that way. Other houses by the same builder were built the same way. I’d really like to talk to the designer and find out what his logic/engineering was behind these decisions. Ya never know, I just might learn something new. icon_eek.gif


Originally Posted By: away
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Ronald,


I think you may just learn, all the intake air needed to keep the attic nice and cool in the summer or warm in the winter will be provided by all the gaps and holes in the building envelope.

Walking down memory lane to when I was growing up, the phrase, "Close that door, I don't want to heat/cool the whole state!", comes to mind. ![icon_biggrin.gif](upload://iKNGSw3qcRIEmXySa8gItY6Gczg.gif)


--
Andrew Way
Keystone Residential Inspection Services PLLC
817.441.9598
www.keystoneinspections.com

Originally Posted By: wdecker
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Kind of lousy when you have to defect, pretty much, all the ouses in the development because of some fool builder’s SOP.



Will Decker


Decker Home Services


Skokie, IL 60076


wjd@DeckerHomeServices.com