Ventilating a Small Closet in Attic
I live in NJ and have a 30×24 unventilated attic. I plan to add a small closet appx 8×10 in this space.. We plan to insulate the new closet . Does it make sense to add a ridge vent and soffit vent for that little area?
GBA Detail Library
A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part
Replies
If it's a dead-storage closet and the attic hasn't shown moisture problems over a few decades there's no need to add venting. If you're insulating at the roof deck/rafters it would still be important to leave a 1" code-min air gap between the insulation & roof deck.
If the closet is going to be fully heated with air exchange between the rest of conditioned space the air tightness has to be nearly perfect.
Please forgive my skepticism if you truly had an “unvented attic” all your insulation would already be install between your rafters up against your roof. So you would not be asking about insulating your closet. If that is what you have, the last thing you would want to do a vent it.
I think we need photos or a better description of what you have
Walt