Dawn42

Thank you all for your responses! I'll definitely look up the names people have recommended and talk over the suggestions with my team of advisors (read: husband and all the relatives we have who've ever done their own home repair). Adding a hatch to the upper attic was already on our winter to-do list, but if seeing what's going on up there is important to deciding how to vent the lower attic before it becomes ice damming season, I'll bump it up to top priority. For anyone still pursuing further conclusions, I managed to get some pictures today before the daylight totally disappeared. The front of the house, with annotations: Other pics of the exterior: gable ends and back of house. Several views looking up into that all-important cavity between ceiling and roof: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v92/A ... 181120.jpg"][/url] [2] [3] Inner surface as the roof slopes down to the eaves. Not the best color representation, but in person I could see that the sheathing was clearly discolored. I didn't see the mold I remembered being told about, so maybe my inspector's suggestion to spray a Borax solution in there and let it air out was more of a precaution based on the evidence of past water intrusion. (There are a few more pictures in the Photobucket album that I think, but am not certain, aren't very useful.

Disclaimer: I am not an inspector, so if that's against the rules, mods please feel free to delete this without reading further. Basic question: My attic is inadequately vented, and nobody seems to agree on the best way to remedy this. What is the best type/size/frequency/position of vent to add? Too many background details: My husband and I just bought our first house in April. It's a 1989 Cape-style (appropriately, since we're on Cape Cod). My dad, who's been inspecting in Michigan for a quarter century now, did our inspection but warned us that his expertise is centered in a different region with a different climate so some of his advice may be inaccurate. One of the findings in his report was that our attic, separated into lower and upper sections, is only ventilated by gable end vents in either end of the upper section. The lower section has no openings, and the space between the two, which he said should be mostly filled with insulation but left partly empty to allow air circulation, is filled with fiberglass top to bottom. There's evidence of mold in the lower attic, which may be from having no exposure to fresh air but may also be from leaks in the previous roof, which evidence suggests was allowed to deteriorate much longer than it should have before being replaced - our current roof is only a few years old and, according to the previous owners, is the first to have replaced the original. We can't tell whether there's mold in the upper attic, because there is no access hatch. The conclusion so far has been that the gable end vents are adequate for the upper attic because of the consistent breeze this close to the coast, but that the lower attic definitely needs help. The options presented by various quarters have included either simply adding another set of gable end vents in the ends of the lower attic, or installing soffit vents along the length of the house (which I think would also require somehow propping up the insulation between each pair of rafters to allow air to move from the soffit vents up to the gable vents, but that wasn't part of the original suggestion). To add to the pressure, one of these was suggested by my dad and one by my husband's father, and since we're each sure that our own father is the ultimate oracle about everything, there's some severe cognitive dissonance going on. More complete question: which, if either, of these options is preferable? Is there an easier solution that we're missing? Thanks for any advice or insight you may be able to offer. I'd be happy to provide pictures or further details if necessary.