Ridge? vent

McLaren

So I'm out digging a trench in the yard, and I look up and see the screen on my ridge vent (or whatever you call that thing) has disintegrated. Bugs, rodents, welcome to my home!

Most of the lower part of the roof (the side we see in the photo) has an attic, but the other side has a vaulted ceiling.

Is there a better way to fix this than just reinstalling regular screen? Rodents could just tear the screen anyway, plus, although I've never seen evidence of moisture in the attic, it sure doesn't seem to give much protection from wind driven rain.

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McLaren

Correction - actually even the part we see of the roof has a vaulted ceiling (the attic portion ends just to the right of the goose neck vent)

joecaption

#1 Please go back and add your location to your profile.
Go to Quick links to edit.
I can see why they thought they had to vent it that way, but if the winds blowing in the wrong direction while it raining waters going to blow right in there.
In your case roof top vents or even round vents like this on the fashia would have been called for instead.
http://factory.dhgate.com/air-condit...p40814167.html

Or Smart Vents like this at the top area of the roof.
http://www.dciproducts.com/html/smartvent.htm

I also would have used a vinyl fashia board instead of wood. The splash back in that area has to be rotting out that board.

Windows on Wash

Heavier gauge screening will be your best bet. If you are worried about wind driven rain, you could fabricate some sort of hat to cover the screened area.

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joecaption

That would be fine but he's going to have to pull all that old wood off anyway to fix the screening so why not improve the design?

I really hate the way those shingles just sort of flop over the leading edge of that roof, one good wind and there going to snap off.
I would have caped it sort of like this.
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=...electedIndex=9

Windows on Wash

I agree that the existing system leaves something to be desired but it could be redone in a capacity that will work and not let water in.

You can put a drip cap of sorts over the vent and screen the vent with heavy gauge stainless.

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joecaption

Or just use these.
http://www.bing.com/shopping/sv201br...M=EGCA&lppc=16

Windows on Wash

If they will fit, that is a much easier 1 stop solution. Most times, those vent spaces were whatever the framer was feeling that day.

If you are pulling off that upper section of fascia, you can make it whatever size you want.

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shazapple

A fairly easy fix that would also help the look would be to install continuous strapping above the current vent opening, and discontinuous strapping below (6" pieces every 16" or so?), then install a solid piece of wood overtop the strapping and paint to match. Before installing the bottom strapping wrap it in insect screen. I think this approach would be a bit more durable and stop any possible wind driven rain/snow. The existing shingle overhang should be able to accomodate the extra 1.5"

McLaren

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone, and yeah, I hate the look of the shingles flopping over the edge like that too. It wasn't that bad before, but the hidden gutters were leaking after the original re-roof (used to be cedar shakes BTW), so they replaced the roof again under warranty so that the epdm membrane could be installed better. Why they didn't do that in the first place on a 30 year old house I don't know.

I'll make a new thread for the other issues, but suffice it to say, I will never again buy a house with diagonal channel siding, a deck that needs a floor drain for water to escape, and I'm not a fan of hidden gutters either. Just give me a simple A frame roof with lots of overhang...although that would ruin my love for the Craftsman style. Anyway, my "West Coast Contemporary" just has too many difficult details in my opinion.