# Ridge Vent - Cut not wide enough?



## carpdad (Oct 11, 2010)

Minimum is 1" on each side although more is better and depends on the kind of ridge vent baffle used. Also best if vent baffles were installed between the rafters but almost nobody installs them. Wider cut will not help with keeping the house cooler. Ridge venting was sold in combo with soffit venting to help with ice dams and that is the ONLY function it has. Sorry for my venting on your post.:smile: Just letting people know.


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## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

I agree with carpdad, in that there basically is no place for air to move. Note the stripes on the underside of the material over the gap? That is the bottom of shingle material, not an opening for a ridge vent. If they were that sloppy with the ridge vent, I shudder to think about not having any baffles at the soffit to keep the insulation from blocking it, but it doesn't fall into the roofer's responsibility. I would call them back out to have the ridge vent removed and a wider cut made and removal of roofing material in that area to let air move out. At least 1" on either side of the ridge, of clear daylight.


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## jmetrail (Aug 31, 2017)

carpdad said:


> Also best if vent baffles were installed between the rafters but almost nobody installs them. Wider cut will not help with keeping the house cooler. Ridge venting was sold in combo with soffit venting to help with ice dams and that is the ONLY function it has. Sorry for my venting on your post.:smile: Just letting people know.


It's a 1.5 story, and it has been entirely gutted, so I will be installing proper baffles.

You're right - this wasn't done for cooling (I have an AC for that), but rather to make sure there's no ice damming in the winter.



> I agree with carpdad, in that there basically is no place for air to move. Note the stripes on the underside of the material over the gap? That is the bottom of shingle material, not an opening for a ridge vent. If they were that sloppy with the ridge vent, I shudder to think about not having any baffles at the soffit to keep the insulation from blocking it, but it doesn't fall into the roofer's responsibility.


Because the place was gutted, I have clear all insulation from the soffit area. There is wide open continuous venting at the soffit. All I needed them to do was a proper ridge vent!

The black stripes you see is the ridge vent (black plastic). They did remove the shingles capping the ridge, so there is some air gap - I just don't know if it's enough. Do that change your opinion?


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## Dub12Nation (3 mo ago)

Any update? We have almost the exact same situation, and looks just like your photos here.


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## jmetrail (Aug 31, 2017)

I got them to come back a cut the plywood properly. They seemed to acknowledge their guys screwed up.

Vent works good, no ice dams to speak of!


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