Limited soffit vents?

[Psychstache]

So in my never ending quest to keep my house cool, I ended up learning about soffit vents. I was glancing around my house and realized that whole I have soffit vents at regular intervals along the front and sides of the house, there are zero vents in the back yard section on the house. Is this normal?

[lthenderson]

What is the style of your roof and is it the same front and back? If front and back were mirror images of each other, I would say the lack of soffit vents on the back is unusual. But there are reasons and roof styles that might not allow for this to happen.

[J Boogie]

I'd echo the good lieutenant.

You could go into your attic and confirm the soffits are indeed venting and see if it's possible to vent the soffits at the back of the house, whether via a ridge or by installing a slantback vent or something.

I personally hate slantback vents as they look like roof acne, but there aren't many other options if you have a hip roof.

[Psychstache]

What is the style of your roof and is it the same front and back? If front and back were mirror images of each other, I would say the lack of soffit vents on the back is unusual. But there are reasons and roof styles that might not allow for this to happen.

The internet tells me it is a gable roof and it is the same all the way around the house.

[Paper Chaser]

What kind of vents does the roof itself have?
You probably know this, but soffit vents are only half of the system. You need to exchange cool outside air with hot attic air. That means you need air to flow in through the soffit vents and out through another type of vent (ideally a ridge vent).

I doubt adding more soffit vents will do much of anything if the roof isn't properly vented

Apparently, a 2:1 ratio of soffit vent area to roof vent area is the target:
https://inspectapedia.com/ventilation/Roof_Venting_Ratios.php

And roof vent area should be 1sqft per 150 sqft of attic floor

[lthenderson]

What is the style of your roof and is it the same front and back? If front and back were mirror images of each other, I would say the lack of soffit vents on the back is unusual. But there are reasons and roof styles that might not allow for this to happen.

The internet tells me it is a gable roof and it is the same all the way around the house.

I can't think of any reason why a gable ended roof wouldn't have soffit vents all the way around but again, sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. If there are exhaust pipes out the back wall, sometimes they don't put soffit vents in those areas to prevent vapors from being sucked back into the attic and possible pulled back into the living space if your house is under a slight vacuum. At the end of the day, assuming the soffits on the one side work and you have adequate venting to allow the fresh air to be pulled in and exhausted out vents on top of your roof (the other half of the system mentioned above), I wouldn't be too concerned if only one side had soffit vents. I personally like to err on the side of too much soffit venting and better air sealing and insulation between the ceilings and the attic than the other way around.

[J Boogie]

What is the style of your roof and is it the same front and back? If front and back were mirror images of each other, I would say the lack of soffit vents on the back is unusual. But there are reasons and roof styles that might not allow for this to happen.

The internet tells me it is a gable roof and it is the same all the way around the house.

A (simple) gable roof will not be the same way all around the house. On two sides it will have gable ends, where soffit venting is not beneficial, and on the other two sides it will have rafter ends where you will want soffit venting.

A (foursquare) hip roof will be the same all around the house, and the soffit venting will have to terminate in slantback vents if the hip terminates in a point rather than a ridge.