I almost missed it!

Lots of people had missed it. The owner, who had the house built 20 years ago and had lived in it all these years. The builder. The county inspectors. The roofer. The second roofer who installed a new roof one year ago.

Yet there it was. In plain sight! I saw it because I was showing the owner the various components of his attic ventilation system. I was making the point that even with the great full length ridge vent installed last year with the new roof, ventilation was still limited in the attic because nothing had been done to increase air flow through the soffet vents.  These were still just 3" diameter holes every 3 feet. By installing additional soffet vents he would improve the comfort of his upper floor and reduce his energy costs.

  Do you see it?  The gable vent is a vent on the side of the house just under the point where the front and back roofs meet.  In this case it was triangular. 

The gable vent was visable because a 1/2" gap had been left between the two vertical nail-to studs at the center of the exterior wall. The studs provide support for the exterior sheathing which in this case was not cut out for the triangular gable vent. There was also no cut out for gable framing, and yet it had still been installed on the outside of the exterior sheathing along with the vinyl siding.

"I wonder what holds it in?" I said, and my client said "Funny you should ask". Just after the new roof had been installed, this gable had fallen out. The roofer, thinking that he had possibly loosened something sent a worker out to re-install it free of charge. Apparently this worker missed the fact that the gable had no gable opening, and just nailed it in place.

It wouldn't have taken much brain power for any one of the many people involved with the construction of this house to ask the question: "How is air supposed to flow through this gable vent, when it is covered over like this?" The carpenters framing the house, the electrician running wires near by, the roofer, the contractor installing insulation.

The fact of the matter is that there are different contractors working on specific parts of every house. They want to get their part right and they often don't notice mistakes by other contractors. This is precisely why home inspections are important on every home purchase.

It's a good idea to have me inspect your client's prospective home. You never know what you will find.

Sincerely,

 Home Status Inspection Company

July 15, 2007 Copyright Home Status Inspection Company, LLC