Q:Do I need the vents at the gable ends?
A: Those little window vents introduce air into an otherwise dank place. Air must circulate in the attic and prevents mildew and molds from growing. Without these, after about 10 years the roof will not function correctly, and you know what that means.
There are other methods of venting the attic spaces. You could try continuous ridge vents with soffit vents but that can be too expensive. There is also plain-old roof vents, but that puts little boxed on the roof plain. Smaller gable vent openings can be installed, but a fan will need to be installed to make up for the loss of air distribution and the CFM requirements needed by code.
For those of you who opted to use the attic space for mechanical equipment, these machines have their own fresh air requirements that MAY dictate the size of the gable openings. A special 'vent thru roof' (VTR) air intake can be installed as well to keep the gable vents small.
Remember to use black fiber glass screen over the vents so birds and other little friends do not inhabit you attic.
