Should my roof insulation be blocking the airflow to the ridge vent?

Unless your roof was specifically designed as a "hot roof" using closed-cell spray foam, those rafter bays need to breathe. Seeing pink fiberglass crammed tight against the roof deck in a mid-90s build is a major red flag. Fiberglass doesn't stop air or moisture—it just traps it. Without a gap, warm moist air from the house eventually hits the cold underside of your roof sheathing and condenses into liquid water. That's how you end up with mold and rotted plywood before you even realize there is a leak.

You need to maintain a clear channel for air to move from your **soffit vents** up to the ridge vent. In a vaulted ceiling, this is usually done with plastic or foam baffles stapled directly to the underside of the roof deck. These baffles create about a two-inch gap that prevents the insulation from blocking the airflow. If you can't see daylight or feel a breeze coming from the bottom of those bays when they are open, the system isn't working as intended.

Since you're already planning to open up the wall, now is the time to fix it. Pull that insulation back and check the condition of the wood. If you see dark staining or "tide marks" on the rafters or sheathing, that’s a sign of moisture buildup. You’ll want to slide some baffles into those bays before putting the insulation back. Make sure the insulation is snug against the baffle but not compressed, as squishing it ruins the R-value. It’s also worth checking the exterior to make sure you acutally have soffit vents. Sometimes builders in that era skipped them or the siding guys covered them up. If the intake is blocked at the bottom, even the best ridge vent won't do much. But regardless, stuffing fiberglass directly against the wood is almost never the right move for a vented assembly. Get those baffles in there now while the walls are open.

Grab a stack of Owens Corning Raft-R-Mate baffles while you’re at it. They’ll give you that 2-inch clearance you need without a fight. Since you're expanding that closet over the garage, check the fire-rated door leading into the house. Most mid-90s builds used a standard 20-minute steel slab that’s likely warped by now. If you're going thru the trouble of fixing the insulation, swap in a Masonite Heritage series with a proper adjustable threshold. No point in having an R-49 ceiling if your garage door transition is leaking air like a sieve.

Since you're alredy tearing into that closet space above the garage, you should definitely look at the door connecting the house to the garage area. Those mid-90s doors usually have terrible seals. I’d swap it out for a JELD-WEN Steel Fire-Rated Entry Door. It’s got the 20-minute rating you need for code, and it’ll do a much better job of keeping garage fumes and cold drafts out of your newly expanded closet than whatever is there now. If you're going to fix the insulation, you might as well seal the thermal envelope properly at the entry point too.