Does my roof need ridge vents?

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gregk24

gregk24

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We have a 1959 ranch house that has gable vents on either side, as well as soffit vents all around. We are looking at getting it re-shingled the beginning of next year. Are ridge vents necessary? We want the new roof to last as long as possible. The current roof is a 3 tab shingle roof going on 15 years old. The shingles themselves look good to me other than some nails sticking up in some spots, we also have a small leak when it rains heavily or for an extended period.

I figured with it being 15 years old and with the leak (and possible other leaks we don't see yet) it may be time to have a new one put on. Anyway, I got a quote to have it replaced. $6,350. This includes dimensional shingles, synthetic felt underlayment, new flashing, and clean up. I emailed the guy back to see if he would charge extra for ridge vents. Just wanted to see what the knowledgable BITOG crowd had to say.

Currently there are no ridge vents installed.
 
Florida house. I'd get them, especially if you plan on redoing the roof. There is no better time to do it them when you're redoing the roof.
 
I put ridge vents on my last house and you could feel the heat venting out . I also doubled the eave vents. The roof had scoop vents as well. There are Florida approved vents on the market at the time I installed the vents maybe around 2006 .
 
The cooling air needs to flow from the soffit vents up between roof rafters and out the ridge vents. Cathedral ceiling is another story. The ridge vents are pretty easy for them to install. They cut the top 2" of plywood away on each side of the peak. The ridge vent goes there.
 
It depends on the pitch of the roof and which way the rain drives from also. I removed my ridge vent because it isn't needed due to there being no air space to vent and it leaked when it rained with a little wind. My house is a ranch with a relatively low pitch but still enough to shingle.

I would say the ridge vent is more for looks than functional. It is basically thick corrugated plastic with the air moving through the corrigations. Adding more regular vents would be a more effective way to move more air.
 
Originally Posted by jhellwig
It depends on the pitch of the roof and which way the rain drives from also.


This. All ridge vents allow in a little rain. You live in Florida. You have hurricanes there. We don't know the pitch of your roof or the prevailing winds.

I would get opinions from neighbors, as well as your contractor.
 
Put them on first in 1996 (plugged old turbine holes) and then replaced that roof in 2015 - and since the slots were already there we put new ridge vents exactly where they were before. Never leaked a drop and we get some bad thunderstorms and tropical storm effects Also doubled in the intake and got all that re trimmed ... After that ... went up and stapled astro foil (double bubble and double foil) to my rafters stopping about six inches from the ends of the 2x6"s ... about 10% better on electric bills after that ...
 
Originally Posted by JLTD
Ridge vents do a better job of what the gable vents and soffits do for you; probably will be an improvement.


+1. I re-shinglwd half of my roof and added ridge vents to the two peaks that had the old style vent. Better ventilation in the summer for sure.

They will probably want to charge you some inflated cost, but they are worth it.
 
Very few houses will not benefit from ridge vents. Do some research and see what the industry says about ridge vents. You need adequate soffit vents to allow either gable or ridge vents to work properly. The object is for the attic temp to be the same as air temp and to vent out excess moisture. If you have bathroom exhaust fans make sure they vent to outside and not into the attic space as well.
 
I do have a mild warning about ridge vents if you go with them...we just had our roof done and the shingles above the vents looked much worse than the rest of the roof.
Our contractor told us it was very common in our area when our house was built to use an inferior product above the ridge vents, I guess there was something on the market that was cheap and readily available...so some people would end up needing work on the ridge vents done well before the rest of the roof needed attention. He said that people typically had a 10-15 year product on the ridge vents but 20-30 year shingles everywhere else.
He assured us that the replacement shingles on our whole house would all be of the same quality, my wife handled most of it but I think we have a "lifetime" warranty (I'd assume that's as long as we own the house and not as long as the structure stands). I guess it looks to me from a distance like shingles are bent over the top of the ridge vent, but it seemed like the contractor was saying the product comes as a unit with the shingles already attached. Our roof is steep enough that I don't care to get up there and take a close look....except for our nightmare sunroom roof that is way too shallow because he hired an inferior contractor for that. The latest roofer told me his crew made some improvements that should prevent some of the water issues we had when than room was new and we had heavy snow, and I didn't run a wire on the surface like I had up there for many years...but I wouldn't be surprised if I am up there shoveling that roof this winter like I have done a couple dozen of times over the years and running a wire next year.
 
We put ridge vents on our house and it made a difference. We also get hurricanes here in eastern NC and no issues with rain coming in. Especially after hurricane Florence. It rained for three days straight, flooding everywhere but the attic was dry as was our separate garage and my 25'x40' shed. All have ridge vents.

I did open up my sofet vents all the way around the house as to get good air flow.
 
They came on our 95 modular, surely builders 🤨quality and I won't brag on them. Yea they work but last year we found a few soft spots along the length this past summer. Offhand I'd say the cracked sealant let the water in.
I'd [censored] well be sure to paint the edges and especially the end grain of the cutout before they go on. Make sure you get a set that's high quality and recommended. Use high quality sealant when they go in and dont scrimp on it. Then keep an eye on it for hardening and deterioration then scrape and reseal when needed down the road. Pay special attention to where they lap together as ours particularly leaked in there from sealant deterioration. They'll let the heat out nicely but water too in if you don't watch them.
 
Originally Posted by HangFire
Originally Posted by jhellwig
It depends on the pitch of the roof and which way the rain drives from also.


This. All ridge vents allow in a little rain. You live in Florida. You have hurricanes there. We don't know the pitch of your roof or the prevailing winds.

I would get opinions from neighbors, as well as your contractor.




+1
 
We've done re-roofs on several of our S.Florida houses and did it as follows.

1. Removed all old insulation in attic during demolition of old roof membranes, tiles, shingles.
2. Sprayed foam insulation on the underside and walls of entire attic space.
3. Removed all gable and soffit vents.
4. Re-directed a 10% HVAC air-flow (in/out) into the now encapsulated attic space.
5. Used an additional fiber coating on surface of roof before installing barrel type tiles which are also foam attached.

Cooling costs went down considerably as we also upgraded all HVAC systems to all inverter driven DC compressors and blowers.

Now on a hot day summer day it is often 20 degrees cooler in the attic than outside.
 
Originally Posted by BMWTurboDzl

"Where the air leaves isn't as important — whether it's a ridge vent, or mushroom caps, or gables. What's important is that you have continuous air entry at the perimeter of the roof down low."

-Joe Lstiburek, Building Science Corp

He is one of the premier building science experts in North America.

https://buildingscience.com/documents/digests/bsd-102-understanding-attic-ventilation
https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/article/lstibureks-rules-for-venting-roofs


+1
Properly blocked/baffled soffits vents are more important for attic ventilation.... you can't have too much. Ridge/gable venting is less important.
 
Originally Posted by henni

4. Re-directed a 10% HVAC air-flow (in/out) into the now encapsulated attic space.



This is extremely important for keeping the roof sheathing of an UNVENTED attic dry. Unfortunately building code hasn't caught on to that in many locales.
 
Originally Posted by BMWTurboDzl
Originally Posted by henni

4. Re-directed a 10% HVAC air-flow (in/out) into the now encapsulated attic space.



This is extremely important for keeping the roof sheathing of an UNVENTED attic dry. Unfortunately building code hasn't caught on to that in many locales.

Why would you waste energy to ventilate an unoccupied space when the laws of physics and thermodynamics can accomplish the same thing for free? Provided everything is set up right initially. Home heating and cooling is expensive as is and will only increase in cost, to propose directing conditioned air into an attic is lunacy.
 
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