Need vents?

[Denray]

Does this pony wall that is covered on both sides by plywood need to be vented? Seems like it.

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[kurt]

Need? Not sure. I could imagine some good reasons for it though.

[Denray]

Google cripple wall venting and you see stuff like this.

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[Marc]

To me that diagram tells you how to install the vents, not whether or not you need them.

I'd suggest a more macroscopic understanding of the crawl is needed to answer your question.

Marc

[Jim Katen]

Is that a shear wall that's enclosed within the perimeter of the crawlspace?

If so, I don't see any need for venting.

[kurt]

Yes, if it's inside the crawlspace as a support wall, I'm not sure what venting gets you.

I'm also not sure what it gets you if it's located elsewhere depending on lots of variables, primarily what part of the country you're in. Maybe in California it's part of what you do. I don't know about California.

We know the insulation and ventilation codes and standard practices are wrong in many instances; one size does not fit all.

[Denray]

Yep, when in the interior then one side shouldn't be any colder than the other.

[Steven Hockstein]

Assuming that both sides of the wall are interior spaces I can't see a reason why you would need vents. If all enclosed interior walls needed ventilation you could argue that there be vents in every wall.

The exception would be if there is a difference in temperature between both sides of the wall there could be some vapor drive through the wall that could result in some condensation.

[mlparham]

A shear wall. A nice observation. I would recommend not modify a shear wall.