Suggestions on correcting the poor ventilation in my attic?

[theedudenator]

We have been in the house a few months, we knew we had to fix some attic vent problems from the home inspection.

I was up in the attic today. I have good sofit vents with foam shields to keep the insulation from blocking. There is a ridge vent installed along the entire length of the roof. BUT the guy who did the work covered it with felt and shingles.

I tried to see what I could do with a razor blade, but it seems to be too much to correct.

I can easily add gable vents and fans, but not sure this will correct the problem.

If it matters, in the future we would like to install a whole house fan.

This is a 2 story house.

[Ed Pawlowski]

If you want to add a whole house fan you'll need some gable vents and they should equal in are the size of the fan, usually about 30' square.

I'd also try to open the ridge vent, but not seeing it, I don't know how big a job it will be. Investigate some different cutting tools

[hallerb]

quoted text -

remove ridge vent cut open openings from above outside replace ridge vent and shingles.

the problem is the bad roofer

[theedudenator]

.

I thought about that also, but I will have to wait until it is warmer.

[theedudenator]

.

Do you think I will be able to use the old ridge vents? Or will I need to buy new. Shouldn't there also be a mesh type filter pad?

[clare]

Come spring peal off the cap shingles and finish the ridge properly - or better yet call back the moron that did the roof and make him fix it.

[trader4]

Yeah, one can only wonder what else the roofer did wrong. I agree with the advice to just open up the ridge vents. Even if you wind up having to replace them, ridge vents are cheap. Not only is it less work than screwing around with gable vents, it's the better solution.

[Joe]

Another vote for ridge vents here. The roofer screwed up big time. If he won't do it over right, litlgate. Owens Corning makes dandy ridge vents as do others. Check the specs for air flow on each for best results.

Joe

[theedudenator]

I did not have the roof installed this way. I bought the house this way.

[Joe]

Your inspector caught the goofup. Hopefully, that was noted in the purchase price negotiations. If you care to, the roofer could be reported for code violations. Meanwhile, find a roofing firm with better qualifications, bonded, insured, recommended, etc. It would be wise to get repairs underway as soon as possible. Ask the roofer to assess the roof for other bad conditions, like missing ice barrier in valleys and lower courses. Then you will know what to expect in the way of durability and can have the budget in shape when finally needed. Good luck.

Joe

[Heathcliff]

The whole house fan requires that you have a certain amount of total square feet of venting in the attic (generally equal to the area of the fan itself) but it doesn't matter where that venting is - can be a combination of soffit vents and ridge vents, mushroom vents, gable vents, open window, whatever. -- H

[theedudenator]

There was a long list of DIY type "repairs" on the house. All of this was accounted for in the final price.

I will be having a friend who knows roofs work with me on it. Soon as the weather is good we are going to pull the ridge vent caps and see what we find.