Are Ridge Vents Right For Your Home?
One exciting innovation for roofing is ridge vents! They are one of the most recent options used in venting air in a home to help keep the house cool and attics dry. Ridge vents offer an aesthetically pleasing and functional option for many homes and there are many advantages to ridge vents, but they aren’t the best option for all homes. Ridge vents aren’t a great option for homes with frequent strong, rainy weather. Also, extremely hot weather environments may require a mechanical roof ventilation system. But, for a majority of homes, ridge vents can help improve the airflow in a home and help reduce the cost of air conditioning.
While not every home is ideal for ridge vent installation, there are several reasons you may want to consider it an option for your home. As ridge vents are mounted at the peak of the roof and require shingle caps to cover the top of the vent, they offer a low-profile option that is far more visually appealing than traditional vents. This allows homeowners to remove the bulky box vents and turbine vents from their roofs in place of a far more stylish and better-performing option.
Along with the visual appeal, ridge vents can help boost the performance of rooftop ventilation as they mount the vent at the highest point on the roof. As hot air rises to exit the vent and cool air comes into the roof to take its place, ridge vents optimize passive air circulation by placing the exit ventilation in the optimum location for circulation.
Ridge Vent vs Box Vent
With more traditional passive ventilation systems such as box vents, rodents and insect habitation present a real problem, and leaking under normal conditions is much more likely. As box vents require a sizable hole in the roof and are made of metal they stick out of the roof and can eventually rust to cause leaks. Box vents can also catch debris much easier, while a ridge vent’s location and low profile help to shed leaves and other debris from the roof- making them easier to maintain than traditional, passive ventilation systems.
Conclusions
If you are considering converting your roof ventilation into ridge vents, either for performance or for visual appeal, it is a good idea to reach out to your local roofing contractor to get an evaluation of your roof’s potential for conversion and an estimate of the cost. Most ridge vent installations are relatively affordable and can improve the performance of your home. If you are considering installing ridge vents on your roof, RoofTek® can provide an assessment and estimate of the cost to convert your roof to a ridge vent system.