Attic Ventilation and Roofing Advice???

8 years ago

I’m getting bids from roofers in my area of Los Angeles to do some maintenance repairs to my pipe flashings. The roof was redone in 2012 and I bought the house in early 2015. I had a leak last winter repaired at the base of the single turbine vent on the roof of my 1700 sq ft, single story home built in the 50s. I’ve had 2 roofers out who have given me 180 degree advice and bids so I’m throwing it out here while I wait for a third company to come over.

Roofer 1 can replace all of my flashings, but he is recommending replacing the turbine with a dormer and adding 5 additional dormers for ventilation. I have probably 20, 16"x4" soffit vents running around the perimeter of the house. Are this many dormers necessary??

Roofer 2 is taking a minimalist approach and suggest not tearing things out and replacing the flashings because he feels the cutting an replacing may risk water intrusion. He is suggesting a good quality sealing pass around all of the flashing that he claims will last 10 years. Is less better than more when it comes to roofs??

Both roofers have 40 years of experience in the area and are well reviewed and regarded. What are the thoughts of the pros on this forum??

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Comments (5)

mmilos
8 years ago
You say you have soffit vents. Does your roof have a ridge vent? If not, I would ask your roofer about installing a ridge vent and eliminate the turbine vent.

Soffit vents work best with the ridge vent.

If you have a ridge vent, I don't think the extra dormer vents are necessary.
Jason Bielski thanked mmilos
PRO
Springtime Builders
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Agreed. Skip dormers, rip out turbine vents, especially if they are powered, and add ridge vent. You don't want to depressurize your attic.

Airsealing the ceiling plane, and adding attic insulation will have better comfort and energy savings than more attic venting. An energy rater or home performance contractor might be worth considering.
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worthy
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Venting down low, which is where the air comes in, is more important than up high where it leaves, according to building scientist Dr. Joe Lstiburek of Building Science Corp. (I tend to listen more to the authority of the experts who write the Codes than trades who have often been doing the wrong thing for decades.)

As noted above, pass on the turbines. What a joke.

See link. It's not advertising.
User
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Spray foam the roofline and get rid of all of the vents except the plumbing penetrations. Better choice for a warm environment.
Jason Bielski
Original Author
8 years ago
Thanks for the feedback. I spoke with roofer 1 about ridge venting. Unfortunately my old 50’s mid century CA Home doesn’t really have enough of a ridge line for venting.
In the mean time I had ROOFER 3 come out for one more opinion and he basically told me that my roof was done wrong by the previous owner’s guy. The shingles don’t line up properly in numerous places and the ends of the 3 tabs slots aren’t covered by the next row of shingles by about 1/4”. Plus the valley flashings are roughly 3” too short over the gutters. In addition to poorly done pipe flashings.
His suggestion is to reshingle the whole thing right over top of the first roof because it is just a single layer, fix the flashings and add dormers. Things just got 5x more expensive.
I’m just trying to avoid leaks. Is all of this overkill???? (At this point).