Thread: Ridge/Ridge Vents

Hello,

I'm new to the site. I joined a few weeks ago and I have reading some great information since! I am still new to the HI business but have learned a lot, and continue to learn a lot and strive to continue the process of learning. I had a follow up inspection this evening on a newer home (2008) on the roof since its been covered with snow for two weeks. I have inspected many roofs with ridge vents...but this one appeared wrong to me and would like to get some opinions. To me it looks like its providing a great entry for water penetration even though I did not see any signs of water penetration in the attic. As the pictures will show some of the singles on one side appear to be loose and one picture will show where someone possible stepped on the ridge-vent and caused one of the singles to turn....which leads me to believe there all loosely hanging and could easily be pulled out on the one side by hand and there is gaps that I can look back up in under the shingles on the ridge. It only looks like this on one side and the opposite side the shingles are securely attached. Any opinions, information, pointers are very much so wanted....Thank you all for your time and help!

God Bless

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Originally Posted by Derek A Smith

Hello,

I'm new to the site. I joined a few weeks ago and I have reading some great information since! I am still new to the HI business but have learned a lot, and continue to learn a lot and strive to continue the process of learning. I had a follow up inspection this evening on a newer home (2008) on the roof since its been covered with snow for two weeks. I have inspected many roofs with ridge vents...but this one appeared wrong to me and would like to get some opinions. To me it looks like its providing a great entry for water penetration even though I did not see any signs of water penetration in the attic. As the pictures will show some of the singles on one side appear to be loose and one picture will show where someone possible stepped on the ridge-vent and caused one of the singles to turn....which leads me to believe there all loosely hanging and could easily be pulled out on the one side by hand and there is gaps that I can look back up in under the shingles on the ridge. It only looks like this on one side and the opposite side the shingles are securely attached. Any opinions, information, pointers are very much so wanted....Thank you all for your time and help!

God Bless

roof1.jpg
roof2.jpg
roof3.jpg

Hi Derick and Welcome !

On this type of Ridge vent the cap shingles should have been removed with the vents attached to a smooth surface.

Roof: Ridge Vents were not installed per Manufactures Installation Instructions need to be
removed and corrected.

Originally Posted by Billy Stephens

Hi Derick and Welcome !

On this type of Ridge vent the cap shingles should have been removed with the vents attached to a smooth surface.

Roof: Ridge Vents were not installed per Manufactures Installation Instructions need to be
removed and corrected.

Hello Billy....Thank you for the welcome!

This was my thinking on the roof vents but I'm someone that don't mind asking questions to verify or make sure! Thank you so very much for the reply and information and help verifying this for me!

Hi Billy,

By looking at the photos it seems this vent was installed over the cap shingles. Not only would I be concerned with the non-typical installation, I would be question whether the sheathing even got cut out to allow for an air space. I have learned that just because the home appears to have a ridge vent doesn't necessarily mean it does.

Best of luck,

Hans Cramer

Originally Posted by Hans Cramer

Hi Billy,

By looking at the photos it seems this vent was installed over the cap shingles. Not only would I be concerned with the non-typical installation, I would be question whether the sheathing even got cut out to allow for an air space. I have learned that just because the home appears to have a ridge vent doesn't necessarily mean it does.

Best of luck,

Hans Cramer

I would agree and it should be easy to see from inside the attic if that was accessible and inspected.
I see this all too often!

All I can say is WOW. I have never seen one installed that badly. As was said by others it should not be installed over ridge cap shingles. What it looks like to me is that the roofers finished and the client said, I paid for a ridge vent. You want a ridge vent, there's your ridge vent.

Looking at photo 1 where the ridge cap looks "stepped on" there appears to be black "mastic or blackjack" joining the seam.

You can see that to the left of the seam it smears out and is old.

To me this looks like a ridge cap that belongs on a metal building, and a used ridge cap. Is it possible when the roofers cut out the ridge, they cut it too wide for a typical residential cap and used a wider/wrong cap to make up for the ridge being too wide?

Also look at the shingles on this same photo. The shingle just to right of the splice in the ridge appears "dropped down" I wonder if you could just reach over there and pull out the shingle.

Derek,
Not only is the ridge vent installed incorrectly, but the shingles are installed incorrectly as well. The rows of shingles are installed high on the row below. This means that they are nailed above the double lapped nail line zone. The bottoms of the each row should be flush with the tops of the wide cutout on the row below. Improper installation will void the warranty and over time the bottom layer of the double layer shingles will loosen and will start to slide off the roof. Usually on laminated shingles the exposure will be (depending on manufacturer) 5-5/8"-6" and the nail line is about 1/2" above that, but must be on the double lapped area. Each manufacturer is a little different, but the process is similar. You should check out some of the manufacturer installation instructions(GAF,Owens Corning, Tamko, IKO etc).

http://www.tamko.com/docs/documents-...g.pdf?sfvrsn=0

This looks like the same exact Ridge vent that I installed on my old house about 20 years ago. As I remember it, it was to be used with composition shingles, but yes, the Ridge Cap should have been removed and then a sealant should have been used under the flashing portion of the vent and then the flashing nailed down (at each hole).

It looks to me like this is a newer roof. It also looks like this vent was removed and then reused. I say this because it looks like the flange or flashing is curled and damaged (from removal) and also the finish of the vent has faded from years in the sun.
And correct me if I'm wrong, but it doesn't look like the flashing is nailed down on one side. I would recommend it be removed and a new Ridge Vent be installed by someone qualified to do so.

Originally Posted by Billy Stephens

Hi Derick and Welcome !

On this type of Ridge vent the cap shingles should have been removed with the vents attached to a smooth surface.

Roof: Ridge Vents were not installed per Manufactures Installation Instructions need to be
removed and corrected.

Welcome Derick - Here's how "they" do it on new homes here in the Pacific Northwest!

Originally Posted by Jim Hintz

Welcome Derick - Here's how "they" do it on new homes here in the Pacific Northwest!

WOW Jim....thats all I know to say!!! WOW

Derek,
That type of vent is common on older houses in my area. If installed correctly, the two main issues are leaking that the 10' joints, where that strip of metal covers the joint. The second issues is the rubber end plugs are have a tendency to fall out.