I Am Not My Roof

More droning on about the new roof:

I got the ladder out early this morning - around 7:30 am.  The alarm was set for 9 am since I didn't go to sleep until 1 am last night but the heat woke me up early.  I looked at the two ends of the ridge vent from the edge of the roof and took more photos. 

Up close, from the roof edge, I can almost believe that the end of the ridge vent on the north side coincides with the end of the ridge vent cut or it's within a few inches not a foot like I said yesterday. 

On the south side, though, after reading more about how important it is to caulk the end cap of the ridge vent, I'm worried.  There is no transitioning ridge shingles to cover the end cap of the ridge vent - it just abruptly ends and steps down to the last shingle above the eave overhang.  I'd feel better it I knew it was very well caulked (caulking DOES need renewing from time to time) AND covered by a transitioning ridge shingle.

I get the feeling I was an idiot to let them cut the ridge vent because it has the potential to create moisture problems, which is what I was hoping to avoid, when there were none before in the attic.

I also read that the VentSure type vent is a cheap, fast solution because it can be nailed.  It can also clog.  I don't really know if we have soffit vents the whole length of the house, front and back.  I know for sure the remodeled carport addition has them.  The soffit vents and ridge vent work together - the intake air comes in through the soffits and takes heat and moisture out through the ridge vent.  They need to be balanced in order to work together with an equal amount of vent space for both.  I get the feeling that the ridge vent was haphazardly cut with no computation of how long or wide it needed to be in relation to the vent space of the soffits.

I really wonder when one day we try to sell this house if a building inspector won't flag the ridge vent as not in code and not even effective?  I've given up, though, on the idea of calling out the county building inspector.  The roofer said the estimate included a building permit but what if he didn't get one and what if the county inspector flags the ridge vent as not being in code?  Forget about it!!

I feel like a hypocrite for telling the roofer that I thought they were wonderful and then grousing about things in this blog.  Some aspects were wonderful - I liked interacting with both him and his wife and the crew was nice but I do see deficiencies in his operation.  I mentioned yesterday that he didn't seem to come around much while they were putting on the roof and he didn't come to look at the final job at the end of the day.  Yesterday, he declined to even go up on the roof to inspect it.

Other deficiencies that I see:

When I asked him the width of the VentSure ridge vent used (in our area, there are two available widths - 11 1/4" and 7"), he didn't know the answer. 

To make the roof penetrations look like they did before with their bases coated with roofing tar and granules would have cost extra.  Spray painting the bases was a cheap, fast solution.

He only replaced the small flashings and re-used the flashings on the wood stove chimney and furnace vent stack.  I foresee that if the roof develops leaks around those particular flashings, he'll say that we'll have to pay to get the leaks repaired and the warranty won't cover that.

On a minor note, he didn't leave any leftover shingles for future repairs.  Shingle colors change over time.  He said he would bring some by - we'll see!

Anyway, I'm going to email that I'd like the south end of the ridge vent checked and ask if they could nail a ridge shingle over the end of the VentSure end cap.