Is my roofing siding contractor lying?

desmoface

Confused consumer here, as my siding contractor for my recent siding job happens to also be a roofing contractor. During the installation of my new siding, he did away with the gable vent on the North side of my home, which I questioned, as my home doesn't have ridge vents and it has a ventilation fan at the South end of the home.

When I realized what he had done, and questioned him about it, he said that the new invisivent soffits he installed will be more than adequate for roofing ventilation, and that the old gable vent wasn't big enough to make much of a difference. I don't buy it, because he was pushing really hard to sell me a new roof and my roof is in great shape; less than 10 years old. I even questioned one of the his workers after the salesman had left, and he mentioned that my roof has a good ten years left on it. (note that the worker didn't hear the salesman tell me that my roof was nearing the end of it's life.

This is a basic 1400 square foot ranch, on a slab, built in 1971.


I'm not getting a good feeling about him removing the gable vent, as it's job is to move air from one side of the attic to the other..I can't imagine I'm going to get that same level of ventilation with just an attic exhaust fan and soffits. Should I get a gable vent installed, or was the salesman right? Thanks in advance.

Steve

ParagonEx

He was right.

Visit airventinc.com for more information.

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shazapple

Hot air rises, exits out the top vent, and pulls cool air in the bottom vents. Without the top vent how is that process supposed to work? Your local code should detail what you need for venting. Ours says that at least 25% of your venting has to be at the top. It does not sound like you have that now.

10 years from a roof is also a very short time. Was it leaking?

The fans are not a great idea, as they tend to pull conditioned air out of the house. Sorry to say this guy sounds like a jack of all trades, a master of none.

Gary in WA

Put it back or install ridge venting; http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/obj/irc/doc/pubs/bpn/57_e.pdf

Page 603-605 here; http://books.google.com/books?id=Z8a...0vents&f=false

Air seal the attic; http://www.jlconline.com/cgi-local/v...170a32100a05c7

How to: http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partner...e_May_2008.pdf

Clues; http://www.finehomebuilding.com/PDF/Free/021105092.pdf

Gary

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desmoface

Hey everybody, thanks for the replies/advice. Ideally I'd have ridge vent installed, that will happen the next time the roof is re-done. Thanks for the links, I will check them out.

Steve

loneframer

I'd go ahead and install the ridge vent now. You should be able to find a 3 tab shingle that matches closely enough for caps. The ridge vent will get air to flow under the roof deck much better than a gable vent.

Regardless of whether the sider had your best intentions in mind or not, he did you a favor by eliminating the gable vent, but to finish the job, you need to get rid of the power vent and add a ridge vent for proper function of the soffit vent.

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It's not that it took him an hour to make 100 bucks, it's that it didn't take you 10 hours to save 100 bucks.

kwikfishron

While you're at it, ask them why they're not installing a weather barrier behind the siding.

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desmoface

Hey everyone, thanks for the replies. I'm going to contact the city building dept and see what they say. The picture shows them removing the old aluminum siding. They put up tyvek before the installed the new vinyl siding.

Thanks again for all the replies, and advice.

Steve

Windows on Wash

I can't believe the lack of building science in some contractors. Soffit venting without ridge venting is just plain stupid.

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Tom Struble

i think we can say he probably isn't lying.just maybe misinformed

ParagonEx

Thought there was ridgevent. Why wasn't it installed with second roof?

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MJW

^^^^Thought so too.


This is what happens when you have a salesman tell you something and the subs do something else. Lack of communication happens quite often. I've seen guys tear off entirely, the wrong house! Talk with the installers if you want to know what's going on.

I hope the ventilation is figured out because everything is going to be quite a bit "tighter" than it was before.

Roofmaster417

I don't think the roof was replaced yet Paragon.,.,

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Roofmaster417

I don't think the roof was replaced yet Paragon.,.,


I seen the same post elsewhere and the dilemma was if the salesman removed the vent to cause premature aging of the roof system eventually leading to a re roof.

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desmoface

Hey everyone, what Roofmaster said. It was a re-roof. Next time it's going to be a complete tear off with ridge vent and we are going to get rid of the gable fan. To be honest, the less mechanical stuff in the attic, the better, as far as I'm concerned, so the loss of the fan will be a welcome bonus when we eventually get around to replacing the roof again.

I'm going to contact the city to see what they say. The gable vent that was removed was really minimal, consisting of slits formed into the old aluminum siding. So, it's probably not a big loss to not have the gable venting. I'm sure there is a lot more venting with the new invisivent installed versus the old, painted over soffit venting. Thanks again for all the replies, and advice, it sure is appreciated.

Steve