What do roof vents do

The general purpose of attic ventilation is to keep attics cool in the summer and dry during the colder months. Encouraging natural air flow and circulation makes your home more comfortable by providing a way for hot, moist, or stale air to leave the house.

Attic ventilation is important in both hot and cold climates. In cold climates, warm air trapped in an attic during the winter can cause snow to melt quickly and then refreeze as ice.

Ice dams in the roof can be destructive to shingles and gutters. Hot air that condenses in an attic can contribute to mold and mildew growth. In hot climates, a properly vented attic allows hot air to escape from the attic and roof area to lower the overall temperature of the building and reduce the cooling load on air conditioners.

In hot climates, the lack of adequate ventilation can cause asphalt shingle roofs to wear prematurely and will also void most manufacturers material warranties. It can also lead to the failure of the roof underlayment of clay and concrete tile. A well-designed and properly installed attic ventilation system, accompanied by good attic insulation, will provide excellent temperature and moisture control to protect your home from unnecessary damage and help maintain comfortable internal temperatures year-round.

This sequence will help promote waterproofing. These vents are laid along the ridge of the roof and can come as a series of separate pieces or one long piece. These exhaust vents provide a reliable open area for warm air to escape the attic, providing essential outward ventilation across the entire length of the attic versus a few isolated areas from other smaller vents.

However, some pros recommend against this style because along with increased openings for air also comes the possibility for blowing snow or rain to enter. Newer styles of ridge vents have curved channels to reduce this risk or are comprised of a mesh like material. First, the roofer should remove any cap shingles along the ridge. Next, they will outline the area using chalk and use a circular saw to cut away sheathing about one or 1.

The roofer will be careful not to cut into the trusses or ridge board. They will then remove sheathing and install the ridge vent by securing one piece of vent at a time and attaching the next piece into it, nailing each piece as he goes.

The ends should be capped or sealed. Finally, the roofer will secure and weatherproof according to manufacturer instructions which will generally recommend different materials for different styles. Source: Home Guides , Reference. Static vents come in a variety of different styles and sizes, but are all non-motorized vents installed near the roof ridge to allow for unobstructed flow of air from the attic. If there are more than one, they are centered between the rafters and installed at regular intervals in a horizontal line along the roof.

First, from inside the attic, your roofer will drive a nail through the roof structure to mark spots for the vents. The roofer will mark these spots between the rafters evenly along the roof.

From the roof they will then draw a guide hole the size the diameter of each vent. These holes will likely be installed closer to the ridge but manufacturer instructions should always be followed. From the roof, the roofer will remove shingles around the guide hole and about one inch back on the upper side of the hole. They will use a saber saw to cut through the underlayment and decking of each marked hole.

To install the vent, the roofer slips the flange the metal lip of the vent under shingles at the upper part of the hole and rests the flange on top of the shingles at the down-slope part of the hole.

To secure, your roofer will following manufacturer instructions likely use roofing nails, ensuring these are long enough to penetrate through the unit, the shingles and the decking. The final step is waterproofing the vent, which will be done by applying manufacturer-recommended material such as caulking around the flange. Source: Air Vent.

Gable vents can function as both intake and exhaust, but rely on strong winds to be effective, so they are recommended to be used in conjunction with additional intake soffit vents near the bottom of the roof. Also, roofing professionals usually recommend against installing a gable vent if that side of the home is subject to driving rain on a regular basis. Rather than being installed on the roof, gable vents are installed on the exterior side wall of the home, near the roof ridge.

Installation first requires a wood frame, made of 2X4s, installed from the attic between two studs. However, since they are at the lowest point of the roof, the most be paired with another type of vent to allow the rising hot air a place to escape.

For more information about our employee roofers, or to get information on your own roofing needs, call Turner Roofing at Skip to content. Roof vents will lower your energy bills.

Reduce Damage. Roof vents prevent damage to your shingles. Without proper roof ventilation, you allow the attic to remain at a high temperature. This can damage and crack your shingles well before they should be showing signs of damage. Go with the Flow. Roof vents create proper air flow, which reduces moisture that can build up inside an attic. Continuous soffit vents are longer, and often wrap around the entire eaves of a home. Much like a ridge vent which runs along the entire peak of a roof , continuous soffits provide lots of bang for your buck because there is more surface area.

The greater the surface area, the more air can pass through. Continuous soffits are generally made of vinyl with intake holes drilled in. If continuous soffit vents are like the ridge vents of the intake world, then individual soffit vents our second type of soffit ventilation are more like box vents.

Because individual soffits are spaced out, they are not as effective as continuous systems because they provide less surface area for air intake. Whether an individual or continuous style best fits your home, soffit vents are the base of any great vertical ventilation system.

When combined with a ridge vent, soffits pull large amounts of cool into the home from underneath the eaves then help push the hot air out. When it comes to effectiveness, there is really no comparison when put up against the following intake vents. Gable vents are an older, somewhat outdated, style of intake that also partially functions as an exhaust system. Unlike with vertical ventilation discussed throughout this article, gable vents utilize horizontal or cross-ventilation to help keep air moving through the attic space.

The basic premise is that air flows in on one side of the attic, then out through the other. A gable vent is mostly used with a gable style roof because a vent can be placed on each side of the home.

These vents are not as effective on more complex roof styles because the cross breeze can be impeded by rafter beams, peaks, valleys, dormers and other parts of the roof. Gable vents come in all shapes and sizes, with the most popular being a triangular shape that sits directly below the peak of the roofing system.

They are sometimes made of wood or vinyl, but metal is the most popular. Important: while more surface area for venting is generally better when it comes to roofing, you should be careful of combining a gable vent with any vertical ventilation strategy. We give this warning because the cross breeze often disrupts any air flowing from a vertical intake like a soffit through to the vertical exhaust like a ridge vent. The purpose of using the soffit and ridge vent is defeated when gable vents enter the picture.

Fascia vents, or over-fascia vents, are a newer form of roofing intake that are designed primarily for roofs that do not have sufficiently sized eaves to fit soffit vents. A fascia vent is placed at the top of the fascia board and gutter and directly underneath the starter row of shingles. The basic premise behind fascia vents is to allow air intake where the wind hits the roof, opposed to a soffit vent with relies on air rising.

The potency of over-fascia vents is questionable because of their small surface area. This is a drastic decrease in available airflow when compared to the surface area of soffit ventilation. The pros and cons of a fascia vent hold true for drip edge vents because the two are very similar in design and effectiveness.

Drip edge vents differ from fascia vents because of where they are installed. The drip edge is a roofing material that goes directly underneath the first row of shingles and is designed to help drain water into the gutters. It is generally made of a malleable metal. A drip edge vent incorporates intake into the classic roofing material, with small holes either drilled into the drip edge itself, or attached to the drip edge as an add-on.

As you can imagine, installation is notably complicated and should only be completed by a professional. Like fascia vents, drip edge vents are great for roofs that are unable to utilize sufficient soffit vents for their air intake but do not hold a candle to soffit vents. For homes that cannot have a ridge vent, box vents are generally the second best option for exhaust.

And for homes that cannot have soffit ventilation, you will find that fascia vents to be your second best bet. With all this being said, every home is different. First, having both intake and exhaust vents is better than having only one.

And second, vertical ventilation is far more effective than horizontal or cross ventilation. Give us a call at or submit a roof estimate request. Ice dams are a common result of poor roofing ventilation. Off Ridge Vents A metal off-ridge vent installed on a roof with three-tab asphalt shingles. Box Vents aka Louver Vents Three box vents across across a roof line, used for exhaust ventilation.

Box vents are similar to off-ridge vents but are a much more popular venting solution.