So I had a small get together last night, and one of my teachers from high school was over. He teaches drafting. One thing he noticed on my house, was that I have no soffit vents. I had noticed it before, but didn't think it was an issue.

My house is a single story ranch, and the roof overhangs the exterior walls about 2 feet front and back. The soffit is solid plywood. The house was build in 1960.

I do have ridge vents on the roof, and I have one vent on the wall that goes into the attic on the end of the house. I don't have a second vent on the other end, as that is where the garage is, and I have a semi-finished room up above the garage that's accessible through the inside of the house.

Up in the attic, I have the fiberglass insulation in between each rafter on the ceiling, but the angled rafters are bare and I can see the plywood for the roof.

He suggested a few things. Either popping some holes with a hole saw, and using the round plug style. Or another option was to use a circular saw, and cut strips, and use the long strip style vent. Or lastly, to remove the plywood altogether on the soffit and replace it with that perferrated vinyl stuff.

But my question is this. Is it really that big of an issue? There is nothing in the attic (only stuff above the garage, but that's climate controlled and separate from the rest of the attic).

Thanks!

It is only an issue if the roof gets too hot from the sun and damages your shingles.

I have 2 side wall vents, one on each side of the attic, a ridge vent, and a powered exhaust that turns on and off based on temperature and the attic stays the same temp as outside.

The best and easiest thing to do would be put in round soffit vents and the aluminum screened covers that just pop in. You can do that from the outside and long as you measure and don't drill through the beams.

The idea is to get airflow to take the heat away from under the shingles. Heat rises and leaves the ridge vent, and cooler air comes in from the bottom or the sides to cool the attic.

do it right.
Close that gable vent and add soffit vents. If you can light a cigarette and it doesn't go out the ridge vent, it's bad and should be replaced as well.

If you have no ice dams or excessive heat, or mold issues, leave it. But having a cooler attic is better for summer months to keeping your house cooler

The real info:
http://buildingscience.com/documents/reports/rr-0404-roof-design/view

I am in Connecticut, so I see all range of weather. For instance, this past weekend was low 90's (has gotten over 100 in the summer here), and this past winter was into the single digits.

I do not know of any ice damming issues. I do know the attic stays cool during the winter. If I open the hatch during a cool day, the attic is cold, and the main house is warm. The insulation in-between the ceiling joists does a good job of keeping the areas separate.

I mis-spoke before (used the wrong terminology), I have fiberglass insulation in-between every ceiling joist, not in the rafters.