Black Top

A beautiful spring-like day. High approached 50F. Clear and sunny. Tonight, there is a chance for snow. Temperatures for remainder of the week are supposed to be back down into the 20's.

Around 9am this morning, the roofer showed up. Spenser and I went out to chat with him. He said they were going to felt the sunroom to protect it. I mentioned we had 3" of snow sitting on it for the past week. He asked when the roof was going to be finished. I laughed and said I was hoping he could tell me. I asked if he knew when they would be back to finish the shingle installation. He said when it warmed up. He said they needed a couple of days in the 40's. Too bad they did not use yesterday and today!

I called Mike to let him know the roofer was here. Mike said he knew they were going to be there.

The roofer crew worked about an hour and when they had finished, it looked like they used all the scraps of felt they had laying around their shop. It is quite a patch job. Not pretty. Sloppy. At least we now have some protection. I sent a picture to Mike.

When I was talking with Mike, he said he had looked at bathroom ventilators when he was at Home Depot. He said we could get a ventilator to fit under the cupola which would have a capacity of 70 cfm. If we installed two, the total capacity would be 140 cfm. I was shocked! I reminded Mike that, on several occasions, he had suggested we could find a fan with a capacity of 1,300 cfm. Mike denied he ever said that, which is not true. He might have been mistaken, but he did indeed say it. I told Mike I did not believe that one or two 70 cfm fans was not going to be enough. My research indicated we should be looking at something with a capacity of 2,000 cfm or more. This was based on a air turnover rate of 15. Mike wanted to argue about my calculations and/or the need to have that many air turnovers. I would have none of it. I reminded Mike that ventilation and humidity control has been a primary concern to us since the start of the project. We are resolute with respect to ensuring this is properly addressed.

Previously, in a February 12 email, I had suggested that we discuss this issue with Frank (HVAC). To this suggestion, Mike had stated he did not believe we needed Frank's involvement. Today, we ended the conversation with my promise to send Mike my calculations of the sunroom volume and Mike's promise to discuss the matter with Frank. I subsequently scanned and sent my calculations to Mike. I also copied Tyler (architect) so he could comment if he wished. I also noted in today's email that in my February 12 email, I had solicited Tyler's opinion on the amount of ventilation we might need and that Tyler did not respond to that request. Shortly thereafter, Tyler sent a note reminding me that he did respond to my email of February 12. This was true, but he did not answer my request for his professional opinion on the amount of ventilation he needed. This evening, Tyler responded: "I am afraid I would have to defer to Frank as the expert on mechanical ventilation requirements.  An architect’s brain can only hold so much."

Clear and Cold

While clear and bright, yesterday was chilly, bordering on cold, with a high of about 16F. Today and tomorrow are supposed to be clear with a highs around 40F before dropping off to the 20's on Thursday and Friday. No work yesterday and no one has shown up today.

I called Mike yesterday to discuss some of the roofing issues we have been kicking around. He told me previously that he was asking the roofer to submit a formal quote. Based upon my research and pondering, I wanted to ensure that quote contained what we wanted. In talking with Mike, I got no impression he has received the quote and I am not sure he has actually asked for it yet.

Regardless, I informed Mike that we wanted to ensure the roofing plan for the main house included installation of a vented ridge. Currently, the house does not have vented ridges and I am confident that the two roof turbines we have are not adequate for the size of the attic fan we have. Mike agreed and stated he also has a whole house attic fan and he feels he also needs additional roof venting. Mike also confirmed his intention to put a ridge vent on the garage. We do not want a ridge vent on the sunroom.

Roof Ridge Vent

As for the cupola and associated ventilation fans, I tried to pick back up on the conversation we had last week. At that time, Mike said he had not received the cupola dimensional drawings, but he would look into what exhaust fan options were available. I subsequently resent the dimensional drawings provided by Brent (cupola). Yesterday, Mike confirmed he has now received them. Again, based upon my evaluations over the weekend, I informed Mike that I was backing away from my contention that the sunroom ventilation fan capacity should be sized to "create a breeze" through the sunroom. Our successful effort to create a very "open" room makes it unrealistic to install a fan capable of pulling anywhere near the amount of air necessary to achieve a wind velocity of even 2 mph. A fan of necessary capacity would also be excessively noisy. Therefore, we need to merely strive to install a fan capable of humidity and odor control. I also told Mike that, over the weekend, we visited our local Lowe's and looked at their powered roof ventilators. It was obvious to us that these devices were far too large to fit on the sloped roof underneath the sunroom cupola of the size we are considering.

Therefore, we thought we might have to either consider other options such as a larger cupola, cutting out the roof peak or mounting the ventilator on the sloped roof exterior to the cupola. The cutout template was at least 15" diameter and it extended about 6" above the roof. This will not fit under our sunroom cupola. Mike agreed with the concept of the limited ventilation capacity and suggested that we could, instead of using a roof ventilator, use a bathroom or kitchen type exhaust fan. These would be much smaller than a roof ventilator and he further speculated that we could probably fit two of these devices on the roof slopes under the cupola (one on each side of the roof peak). He thought the roof hole might only have to be 3" or 4" with a low profile vent cover. There would be no interior ducting and we would cover the interior roof hole with a decorative grating.

If he can find something that will serve the purpose, this would be ideal. One or two weather-tight fans inside the cupola, each with about 1,000 cfm capacity, would provide the required ventilation and be hidden from sight. I further counseled Mike that we need fans that are very quiet. Once again, Mike said he would do some investigating and get back with us. I reminded Mike that we were very anxious to get these cupolas on order.

As for the garage, I suggested to Mike that, for this application, we wanted to consider installation a whole-house type fan, suspended in the trusses, if necessary, so that we could have a breeze in the garage. I suggested a fan capacity similar to the one in the main house. It is a 36", two speed with a high speed capacity of around 12,000 cfm. Mike's reaction to this was not overly enthusiastic, so I will need to follow up on this so it does not get forgotten. Mike stated that the garage will have ideal ventilation with a vented soffit and roof ridge vent. I got the impression he did not believe either a functionally vented cupola or high capacity attic fan were needed. However, I hopefully made it clear that, at this time, we feel we will want both an attic fan as well as a functional cupola in the garage.