Our ridge board was cut to make room for the attic fan. Is this a problem?
I have a finished attic with vented space above the collar beams, about 4 ft high. My home is 25 years old. In making plans to replace the burned out ventilation fan, I noticed that when installed, a 2″ X 2″ X 6″ piece of the bottom end of the 2″ X 10″ ridge board was removed to make room for the fan. I don’t think this is a structural issue as I don’t think the ridge board is weight bearing, but I worry that when I have the home inspected for resale it will come up as a code violation of some sort. Advice?
Replies
if it does come up, tell the "inspector" not to get his panties in a bunch. not ideal but nothing will happen as a result of it being done.
Thanks. Can you give me any advise on how to improve the venting? A bug screen covers the gable vents and air flows in from portions of the screen outside the fan. Should I cover the portion of the screen outside the fan with thin plywood so more air is drawn from inside the attic?
guess it may help but i dont think you will be gaining much.
what kind of soffit do you have? vented or unvented?
what kind of roof ventilation do you have?
We have a finished attic. This venting is for the space above the finished attic (basically above the collar beams) and for beyond the knee walls on either side of the finished space. There are soffit vents in the unfinished space outside the knee walls on either side of the finished portion of the attic and a matching gable 35 ft away at the other end of the area above the collar beams. There is a couple inches of space above the angled finished wall insulation allowing air to flow from the unfinished attic space beyond the knee walls to the space between the gables above the collar beams that form the ceiling of the finished portion of the attic.
Generally i would steer away from fans. There is a very valid argument that the "benefit" of the hot air extraction from the attic at such a high rate actually cost you more. conditioned space is basically forced in the attic because of the depressurization cause by the fan.
not adressing your concern i know but something to consider. may want to look at other options of venting that space.
It appears that the corner hacked out of the ridge board reaches up to just about even with the bottom of the two visible gable joists. As such, no real "meat" has been cut from the ridge, and the ridge board is not really "structural" anyway. If an inspector balks he's just looking for stuff to write up.
One does wonder why the fan was installed that way, though. From all appearances the fan could have been installed 3-4 inches lower, and with the fan that high it's partially blocked by the joists.
One could install a shroud of sorts to block off the area around the fan. Lightweight plywood would work, but my favorite for such applications is old corrugated plastic political lawn signs -- light, easy to work with, and sufficiently stiff for the application. And the price is right.
I wouldn't worry at all about the ridge.
I might however worry about the fan itself. Check out this post on our sister site: greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/musings/fans-attic-do-they-help-or-do-they-hurt
many web sites say that attic fans do not save energy.
they save only if your home has essentially NO attic insulation.