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Is this interior soffit needed??

5 years ago

A screened in back porch was added to my 50s house in the 80s. There is a soffit between the house and the porch ceiling. I’m having new siding and soffit put on my house and the contractor says I need the soffit. It looks weird and I don’t like it and I’m wondering why it is needed since the porch is covered? The porch ceiling will be covered with vinyl bead board. Here are pictures of both sides of the porch. If you know about soffits can you explain this to me?




Comments (7)

  • 5 years ago

    Thank you so much i was hoping there was some way to mitigate it. But if its needed, i will go with it!

  • 5 years ago

    You could extend the new porch ceiling all the way to the house and add 2-3 cut-in vents in the area of the existing house overhang. There may be some work in adding furring strips where the ceiling goes from sloped to flat at the existing overhang, but it would be worth it esthetically. If you ever enclose this screen porch, you will mess up the ventilation again and will need to reassess more venting options.

  • 5 years ago

    That is a great idea to pitch to my contractor.I don’t know if this makes a difference in the venting issues

    but there is soffit along the outside edge of the porch and the inside that connects with the other part of the house and connecting soffit is just a short length. I just had new triple vented royal vinyl soffit installed. here are pictures.


  • 5 years ago

    There is no guarantee that the screen porch roof venting connects to the house attic (where venting is required). Most likely the connection point of the screen porch roof prevents air movement into the main roof. You could also have enough other venting that would be adequate if the screen porch vents were blocked off. Your climate location will also factor in the ventilation requirement.

  • 5 years ago

    So i guess that we will have to remove the soffit to find out if it is connected. it is very difficult to get close to it in the attic because the slope os so low. 2/12 Here are some screenshots from Hover

    that indicate it might be needed.




  • 5 years ago

    There were soffits and vents like that on my last house. We added a sun room. (yr around type), and were told, that the soffit venting had to stay. They never bothered me at all.