Hi DC. I had an incredible amount of condensation build up on the interior gable ends in the attic of my home over the winter - up to an inch and a half thick. Now, as temperatures rise with the arrival of spring, that frost is melting and finding it's way through nail holes onto the ceiling tiles.

I have 5 summer heat escape vents on the roof but winter storms bury these vents so they are of no practical value when it comes to dissapaiting leaking winter house moisture. I have found several of the major vapor leaks into the attic - one in the laundry room above a cupboard, one in a kitchen cupboard, one in the bathroom where the fan goes (no fan - just an unsealed hole.) I believe all laundry and plumbing vents are unsealed as they go through the ceiling too. That's probably true for the electrical wires that run through the ceiling as well. So I'm in the attic pulling insulation up and sealing these leaks. I found, too, that one of my boys hadn't sealed the trap door to the attic as well. That, in itself is a major heat and vapor leak.

My aluminium soffits are only one foot wide. On average they should be two feet to allow more air circulation. The insulation shutes venting air from the soffit into the attic should be a couple of inches from the roof sheeting but on my house they are perhaps half that. I could crawl through the attic and shove a couple of 2x2's above each shoot to allow for more air flow. Normally an attic up here in these extremes of temperature can self vent just through the soffits. In my case I think I'm going to need to add vents in the gable ends. If I do that, I was thinking to have fans installed in those vents. But drawing air out of the attic may create a negative air space and draw more moisture out any leaks in the cieling as well. Would drawing dry, outside air in through the gable end vents and into the attic and out through the soffits be any different than drawing outside air up through the soffits and out the gable end vents? Both senarios could create negative airspace couldn't they? Keep in mind that the warm, moisture laden air in the house is of a higher density and a greater pressure than the atmosphere outside so there's a natural negative airspace up in the attic to begin with.

What can I say, it's an old mobile home poorly sealed and insulated to begin with. I cut the original flat, no soffit, 1/12 slope aluminium roof off, built a 12x40 addition, added the 1 ft soffits all the way around and reroofed everything to a 4/12 pitch.