Hansen Pole Buildings’ Designer Bill is going to keep me on my toes! Before joining the Hansen Buildings team, Bill spent 14+ years as a Construction Project Manager for diverse projects such as commercial, industrial, institutional and medical. What little he doesn’t know, he isn’t afraid of asking.
Bill posed this set of circumstances to me recently: “40×40 HIP conditioned space. Normally eave and ridge vents OR gable end vents with the calculation for sizing…right, but on the HIP I couldn’t find an option for something like – we call them O’Hagen vents or dormer vents (the half round metal vents that you put 3’ from the top of your ridge line primarily in shingled roofs). But I don’t imagine they would work well on metal roofing without relying on a lot of caulk, and that sounds like a BAD idea over conditioned space.
Any suggestions besides talking them out of a Hip?”
“Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus”, and Yes Bill, there is a practical way for venting a hip roof on a pole building.
Ventilation is maybe one of the most overlooked features of any building, and certainly pole buildings.
A few words about ventilation here: https://www.hansenpolebuildings.com/blog/2012/08/ventilation-blows/
Any full hipped roof which will have an enclosed dead airspace attic should have enclosed vented overhangs which provide an air inlet. The net free area of the soffit vents must be equal to or greater than the area provided by the exhaust vent(s).
With a full hipped roof, the “peaks” or “ridges” of the hip lines can be vented as an exhaust point by use of the Mid-America Hip Master vent. This ventilation system is designed specifically for use with steel roofing and provides 12.228 square inches of net free area per lineal foot of ridge.
It appears some other hip vents may very well work, such as the GAF Cobra® with 9 square inches per foot or the Air Vent Hip Ridge® with 12 per foot.
In any case, venting a hip roof crisis averted as there is a design solution somewhere for virtually any construction challenge.
