Homeowner Forum / Construction / November 2006

Hi, folks,

About once every year or so, when the wind blows just right, I can get
water dripping from the tops of two window frames in my house.  These
two windows are located directly beneath gable vents in my attic.
Every time I see the drips, I think that there's something wrong with
the windows -- and then I remember!  The leaks happen rarely enough
that I usually forget about them completely, until the next time
(which, in this case, was yesterday).  Maybe I'll follow through this
time?

I recently had a solar PV system installed and, while I had the roofers
up there, I had them install a ridge vent.  The PV engineer had some
background in solar thermal as well as PV, and told me that the ridge
vent would improve passive convection in the attic.  It seems to have
worked.  It's cooler in the house during the summer than it was before.
The engineer told me that I could make the system work even better if
I sealed off my gable vents.  With the gable vents closed off, air
would only be able to enter the attic space through the soffit vents.
Supposedly, this configuration would enhance the chimney effect in the
attic space.

So now, I have two possible reasons to seal off the gable vents.  My
questions are:

1) Do these reasons sound valid to you?

2) Why am I getting water in my gable vents at all?  The winds here are
not exactly gale-force.  Is this a design flaw?  Is there an
installation problem I should be looking for?  The house was built in
1970, and the vents are original construction.

3) If I close off the vents, are there right and wrong ways to do it?

Thanks for your help!

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