My MIL is having a small one room extension put on her house. Three weeks ago the contractor put on the roof using standard three tab shingles. He installed a ridge vent but I am almost certain no soffit vents were installed. Yesterday it was pouring rain and they were installing the drywall when they noticed that the roof was leaking. It appears the water was coming thru the ridge vent. The contractor covered the roof with a tarp but is now telling my MIL that he doesn’t know why it leaks. He never wanted to put a ridge vent in because he claimed that they always leak but my FIL insisted on the having him install one. The roof has a very small pitch, maybe 7/12. The house has a ridge vent on the main section (for years) already with no leaks. The main section of the house is a truss roof whereas the addition was build with a ridge beam and rafters. Any ideas on why the ridge vent would leak? Lack of soffit vents? Could the ridge vent be to narrow over the ridge beam? Could he have cut back the sheathing too much / too little before installing the vent? I seem to remember reading an article in FHB a few years back about ridge vents but I can’t seem to find it. Any suggestions / comments / explanations would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for all the help
Ryan
Replies
ryan... this roofer has ridge vents that always leak....
mine never leak..
what do you suppose ? hmmmmmmm....
Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Improper installation, or perhaps the roofer used lousy quality products. Have no problem with ridge vents on our 4/12 roof.
Thanks Dan and Mike for the reply. This is what I figured also. Ridge vents are pretty straight forward and should provide infinite years of leak proof venting if they are installed correctly. I remember reading a while back about baffled ridge vents. Could something like this be a fix? Would a baffled ridge vent work without soffit vents? If there is no air flow coming from the soffits, what will force open the baffles?
Ryan
ryan .. look at this thread..
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages?msg=45789.1
and in there is a link to ShingleVent II ridge vent ( mfr'd by AirVent )
it explains the whole process and function of ridge vents and also baffles
Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Ridge vent (or any other rooftop vent) won't work period if there are no soffit vents.
The baffles used in ridge vents aren't flappers like a dryer vent, but rather a "labyrinth" that prevents rain or snow from blowing straight in. The Shinglevent units also have a "filter" which is a thin piece of porous plastic foam that provides an additional baffle.
Having no Soffet inlets will NOTmake the ridge vent leak. With no soffit vents the only thing that will happen is there will be no air coming in, so there will be almost nil going out, hence no ventilation. What causes a ridge vent, or for that matter ANY foof vent to leak is POOR installation. Even a 2/12 slope roof vent, if its installed correctly will not leak. Better start looking for a QUALIFIED ROOFER/ (TRADEPERSON. Hube
Ryan ,
It depends on the type of ridgevent that was used.Sometimes they are not capped right at the ends of them and water finds it way in, or sometimes if Coravent is used and installed on the ridge but not butted tightly together it will leak from the sides where they butt together after all, they only come in 4ft sections. Then there is aluminum vents that have a band around the seams that will leak also if not done right,and you can check to see that it is fastened properly because if it wiggles then you have found your problem because the wind is uplifting it bringing in rain with it.
Shavey,
Thanks you all for your explanations and advice. As usual you guys are a great resource.