A bit of venting

I did a home inspection recently in Kitchener that revealed a bit of a surprise.  Surprises actually.   The home was a more expensive home and looked well maintained.  The roof had recently been shingled.  The seller had documents from the roofing contractor to prove the date of installation and warranties etc.  Naturally I expected to find the roof in tip top shape.   As it turned out, most of the issues with this house were directly related to the roofing   I will illustrate the most glaring one.
The shingling job looked nice;  straight rows, no buckles.

The roof vents were ridge vents.  Ridge vents have an advantage over the very common square roof vents because they are continuous and they are at the very top of the roof.  That is the most likely place where the hot air will want to escape.
 
I usually inspect the attic last so I don’t have to do any more inspecting once I have collected dust and insulation on my clothes.
Once I was in the attic I had a look to make sure that the plywood was cut back far enough at the ridge to allow for adequate air flow.  Well…The photograph below shows what I found.  This is looking straight up into the peak of the roof.
The plywood wasn’t cut back at all.  The ridge cap was sitting on the roof looking good but it sure wasn’t doing any good. The only good thing was that the roof was new so the heat and moisture didn’t have a chance yet to do damage to the framing, to the plywood or to the shingles.
The thing that burns me is that there is no way that this was a mistake.  Any roofing contractor knows that a roof vent can’t vent the roof if there is no way the attic air can get to the vent.  It simply was much quicker to install an ineffective vent, collect the money and run than to do the job properly.
My recommendation:  Don’t assume the job has been done right.  Get a professional home inspector to check it out.  It may be the best money you have spent in a while.

Submitted by Bert, for Benchmark Home Inspection Services.  Your Kitchener, Waterloo, Guelph and Orangeville area home inspector.