I roofed my house over 20 years ago and installed 4 individual "turtle" vents. As I recall, ridge venting was a new idea. Now, I am re-roofing the house and want your insights into whether I should forego the turtle vents and opt for a ridge vent.

Many thanks!

hat

 

Do both, That is what my roofer recommended, The ridge vent does not have the Sq. inch venting that I had before.

 

Just saying,

Herb

Ridge vents are aesthetically pleasing.  The turtle vents work fine and are usually placed on the rear of the house and are aesthetically pleasing too because they are not visible from the street.  Patching the turtle vent holes and going to the ridge vent is a lot of unnecessary work in my opinion.  I would stick with the original vents.

For the ridge vent they took a skilsaw and just went down the ridge and ripped an 1 1/2" strip the length of the ridge both sides. Then installed the vent then put a cap strip over it. I wanted him to put a 4" wide zinc strip at the ridge leaving a couple of inches exposed to the weather so as to keep the moss off the back,North, side of the roof. He ended up putting the zinc strip down and covering it with the vent and roof cap, leaving none exposed to the weather. Awhile later I had my son install a 2" strip exposed ,didn't look as good but no one but me could see it.

 

The thing you do need is plenty of air circulation in the attic.

 

HErb

listen to Herb...

I would also do both, but the effectiveness of the vents is only as good as the air that can get in, generally through the soffit vents.

As I understand a lot of shingle companies require a ridge vent for the warranty.   I have also read the leaving the turtle vents just short circuit the air flow by sucking in air at the turtle vents and exiting out the ridge. They say having enough soffit vents is better. I don't know which is best.   Roly

Edited September 21, 20187 yr by Roly

2 hours ago, Roly said:

As I understand a lot of shingle companies require a ridge vent for the warranty.   I have also read the leaving the turtle vents just short circuit the air flow by sucking in air at the turtle vents and exiting out the ridge. They say having enough soffit vents is better. I don't know which is best.   Roly

That's something I hadn't thought of, maybe it's best to replace the turtle vents.

Be leery of the shell game when you ask for a quote.  The contractors will quote a roof replacement and a ridge vent.  In addition, they will indicate that it will be $X for each sheet of plywood they have to replace.  They will tell you that they so not know how many sheet they will have to replace until they have remove the old shingles.  They already know that they will have to replace the sheets which have the cut-out for the old turtle vents.  Danl

A couple of more ideas I will throw on the table. I also have gable end vents at the peak of the gable + the bird blocks at the eves. There is plenty of short circuiting going on, the more the better to cool the attic. Also there are small insects that like the tubes of the ridge vent for their homes.

Herb