Q&A - Do I need ridge vents in my new roof?

Homeowner from Cleveland, Ohio, wanted to know if their recent roof replacement had the correct vents.

Richard, a homeowner from Cleveland, wanted to know if the ridge vents installed in their roofing system were the right vents for their home. They asked: 

Hello. I just had my roof replaced here in the Cleveland, Ohio area. The roofers installed ridge vents. I have two gable vents and no soffits anywhere. Was I misled as to the need to install the ridge venting? We are seniors and hopefully not taken advantage of. Thank you.

Follow up question: I had a roof that had three box vents and two gable vents. I had a new roof installed, the box vents were taken out and a ridge vent was cut in and installed. The company said its salesman made a mistake signing me up to do this. They want to come and take off the ridge vents, cover that area and reinstall box vents in the new roof. Am I being taken advantage of? We are seniors and on a fixed income. Help. Thanks.

Roofing expert Joe Koch from Elite Construction Solutions had this to say in response:

A ridge vent is the recommended "exhaust" vent by manufacturers of roof vents. It's the only continuous exhaust vent available. The roof needs to qualify for ridge vent which essentially means there is enough linear feet of ridge on the roof to allow for enough ridge vent to equate to the required NFA (Net Free Air).

Gable vents are intake vents. Soffit vents are intake vents. The recommendation is to have balanced intake and exhaust vents as part of the roofing system. 

The recommended intake with ridge vent is soffit vents because they can be installed fully vented and also be continuous.

Gable vents (intake) and box/turtle vents (exhaust) create a tree effect that does not fully vent the roof. However, sometimes homes don't have soffits, or homeowners understandably do not want to invest in new soffit or eave vents. At the end of the day, some venting is better than nothing. 

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