wrote:

Greetings,

I have a 60-year-old 1,000 SF brick-and-block raised ranch in
northwestern Illinois. About 17 years ago the original drafty wood
windows were replaced with good quality vinyl and caulked well.
Shortly after that a tear-off roof replacement was done, and an attic
fan and roof vents were added, for a total of 10 vents. There are no
eaves/soffits on the house save for one small overhang at the front
entry. The west elevation (front) is gabled with no vents, the other 3
are hip.

The new shingles curled much earlier than anticipated on the house;
the detached brick garage’s shingles, installed at the same time, are
fine. Due to the lack of intake vents there is a definite
ventilation/moisture issue, and a roofer has suggested a system called
EZ-Flow Eave Vents, supposedly designed for houses like mine. The
brochure for this system is linked below – does anyone have any
comments on the efficacy of this system?

http://mulroepc.com/ezflow.pdf

As the gutters are aged and in mild disrepair my thought is to do a
tear-off on the house and gutters, install this EZ-Flow system (run of
116’), a new roof and gutters at the same time. (The garage is fine
but to color match I may add a second layer.)

Additionally, there is a bathroom exhaust fan that is piped and
hanging directly underneath a roof vent nearer the gutter than the
roof ridge. Is it advisable to vent this differently as long as all
this other work is being done? Ditto a kitchen ceiling exhaust fan.
Should I scale back the number of roof vents if I install this EZ-Flow
system, as don’t the intake and exhaust areas need to be balanced? I
realize a good roofer should make recommendations about this but being
a single mom, it helps to be educated in advance.

Thanks for any comments.

~JMA

Check out:

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Roofing-1598/eave-vents.htm

Here's the text:

Expert: Stan Skarbek
Date: 5/2/2007
Subject: eave vents

Question
I like your answer about roof vents. Adding ridge vent to gable vent . I
am in Michigan where we get snow what do you recomend for adding eave
vents to a house with no eave overhange .

Answer
Hi Mike,
If there are no eave overhangs, I recommend that you don't add eave
vents. Even if you're able to install them between the rafters, with no
eaves, the rain and snow will blow into the vents.

What you can do, if you have an open attic (as opposed to cathedral
style ceilings) is to install some eyebrow style attic vents in the
roof, down low, near the edge of the roof. Putting a few of those vents
down low on each side of the house will accomplish the same thing as
regular eave vents. I recommend installing one vent every 10' to 15'
along the bottom edge of the roof.

I hope that helps. Feel free to follow up in the future.

Your roofer with a keyboard,
Stan Skarbek