No roof venting?

I live in florida and my house was built in 59. It is a simple gable roof and the pitch is too low to be shingled per code. I just had the roof replaced. It was tar and gravel and is now torch down. My question is that the roof originally had a vent with a fan I believe, but the roofer told me I didn’t even need to vent it and did not put a vent on. He said that the soffit was completely closed off anyway (which is true) and that I didn’t need to vent it with such little space (there is maybe 4 feet of attic space at the highest point). Does this sound right? Thanks.

youll be fine.
no vent needed in florida.

gweedo

Thanks for your reply. I don’t need to be worried about mold or anything? Why are no vents needed in FL?

I am curious about this also.

Gweedo forgets that every roof he installs has zero warranty from the shingle manufacturer. You need vents. Yes you can have mold and condinsation without them. Oh yea that warranty thing too.

For every 300 square feet of free attic space you need 1 square foot of ventilation divided between the soffits and the exhaust vents at the top of the roof. If you send me your measurements of the house length x width i will tell you how many vents you will need to make the min requirments.

Almost forgot…

Florida building codes are the toughest in the country. Im SURE by code you need vents. Matter of fact i will bet on it. Tell me im wrong gweedo and where you are located so i can show you the building codes.

ill ignore the cheap shot.

roofs in florida do not see snow, so we dont have to vent in a way that keeps snow from melting in the house.
so vetilation from a moisture releif aspect is not needed.

now its common sence that a vented attic is gonna be cooler in the summer, but alot of houses just dont have them.

maybe this will help.
i have torn off thousands of roofs with ridge vents and without, with turbines and without, with powervents and without.
never once have i said " yep the vents ruined this roof"

never.

vents may be important up north,
but you can take it or leave it in florida.

and ill agree with gtp that a man warr is worthless
when you have gweedos #.

gweedo.

[quote]roofs in florida do not see snow, so we dont have to vent in a way that keeps snow from melting in the house.
so vetilation from a moisture releif aspect is not needed. [/quote]

As the temperature of the air decreases so does its ability to hold water (moisture).
When it is cold out it is dry.
The opposite is also true.
Warm air has the ability to hold more water, the more water that is available to evaporate into the air the more humid it will be.
People in Florida know all about heat and humidity.
It is always warm there and it is surrounded by water.

When people in Northern regions have problems with ice damming it is not because of humidity, it is cold and dry outside…
It is because of inadequate ventilation and improper insulation, at the exterior wall line (sometimes other things).
In Michigan ventilation is needed year 'round.
We have the visible effects of poor ventilation in the winter, look at all the pretty icicles…
And we have the hidden effects of built up heat and humidity in the form of rotting roof decks and mold growth.
Ventilation is important in Michigan because it gets hot and humid here in the summertime.

[quote]i have torn off thousands of roofs with ridge vents and without, with turbines and without, with powervents and without.
never once have i said " yep the vents ruined this roof"[/quote]

I have torn off quite a few roofs here that had nothing but 15# felt in the valleys.
And there was no deck damage at all, anywhere.
I can honestly say that these roofs worked because they had good ventilation.

[quote]and ill agree with gtp that a man warr is worthless
when you have gweedos #. [/quote]

I agree with that 100%
A proper installation is all you need.
That includes proper ventilation.
Extended warranties are a great sales tool, but they are seldom needed.

I spent several years as a roofing manufacturer’s rep in Tampa before starting my own company in another state. I’ve rarely heard such a preposterous claim. “Ventilation isn’t needed in Florida” - are you kidding me?

That was not a cheap shot. The shingle manufacturer states you must have ventilation to honor the warranty.

SO what you are saying you have zero ventilation when you install, do you pull permits? Knowing the florida code is what it is you have got to be kidding me.

Every roof you put on without ventilation has no warranty forst off. Second i for the life of me can not beileve that the tampa bay building office who i will call today and confirm does not require ventilation in a roof install. Gweedo if i call them and they say that you must have ventilation your not going to like what i type.

Reguardless whos is right, you void the shingle warranty without them period. Do what you want but from what i have been reading over the years you may not want make a big deal about this if you understand what im saying.

yall know me by now.
if im tellin ya that it doesnt matter if a roof has a roof vent or not in my neck of the woods. it just dont matter.

as a matter of fact all you smarty pants,
were are all theese vents at on the tile roofs down
here, uh oh uh oh , yeah thats what i thought. how bout the metal roofs down here, yep no vents on them neither.

let me guess, this only applys to shingle roofs.

there are roofs all around me without roof ventation, that are just fine. i can stand out my front door and look at a dozen of them.
does everyone need pictures.

did they do them legally or illegally?
who cares that was not the question from the poster.
he did not ask if it was code.
he ask if his roof needed it.

do not mess with his all mighty.

and what is rarely heard bout somethin, cshomes?
so your sayin youve heard this before, rarely?.
probably heard it from an experienced florida roofer

gweedo.

Florida did drop a lot of rules and regulations after 4 major hurricanes and let outside contractors assist with the disaster,but the shingle manufactuers never dropped their specifications and/or requirements for a warranty on their product.Attic ventilation is required for all shingle roofs in all states,and any rep will void a warranty on lack of ventilation.

Now to answer the homeowners question.You should notice a big difference in cooling your house in the summer with proper attic ventilation,being in Florida I would say the temperture inside your home will run at least 7 degrees higher without proper ventilation,you will think your air conditioner isn’t working.Warranty or not you need some source of ventilation.

The point is your supposed to give correct advise also what is legal. Not whatever you want. Your here to help people not syeer them the wrong way. Gweedo i dont have a problem with you, its what you type i have problems with. You seem to not think and just run off the cuff. Thats not proffesional. Sadly there are zero warrantys on the shingles when you put zero vents in. My question now is if its illegal, why did you put that down? Dont half ass this site, if you do that to your roofs thats on you this reflects all of us in a whole.

So its ok to do illegal things?

WHy on earth would you say that?

Im just shaking my head even my wife knows you have to have vents in a roof and shes never been on a roof. Good day sir

Brings up a question from another site im on, is it jackleg or not?

gtp ,
your the biggest trouble maker here and evryone knows it.
the h/o is happy.
THATS the main point here.
and i make alot more of them happy than you do.
as a matter of fact i and others here have had to step
in and calm down some h/os after you got them all pissed of with your " oh its not legal, tear it off, fire your roofer, or it voids the warranty crap.

this is a web site for prople to ask roofers there opions, not what you think it is.
what ever that might be.

and neither one of you touched on the no vents on tile or metal roofs down here.

THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF ROOFS NO ROOF VENTS.
DOIN JUST FINE.

yeah come on know it all roofers whats you exscuse for that?

you started it.

gweedo.

ps. its best to wait till the poster is upset before you start attackin someones credibility.

metal roofs are metal,they are not shingles and are not warranted by shingle manufactuors.
Metal roofs vent through the high ribs and out the ridge,one of the best venting roof systems I’ve seen .
I had a freind that had his own heating and air conditioning buisness and he was telling me that homeowners were complaining about the airconditioner not working properly,however it was doing all it could do and was working properly.I started inspecting attic ventilation for him and most of his problems were defective power vents or no vents at all.Proper attic ventilation reduced the temperture about 7 degrees inside the homes and satisfied his customers.Now show us your theory that no ventilation is needed.All I can see is you just cooked your customer and cost him unnecessary repair bills on his air conditioner.
Roofer

not to mention the energy bill you could have saved him hundreds a year on cooling.

GEEWDO, why do you think they sell energy star shingles in florida but not in NY? and we use ridge vents. it is not just used for ice damming.

[quote]gtp ,
your the biggest trouble maker here and evryone knows it.
the h/o is happy.
THATS the main point here.
and i make alot more of them happy than you do.
as a matter of fact i and others here have had to step
in and calm down some h/os after you got them all pissed of with your " oh its not legal, tear it off, fire your roofer, or it voids the warranty crap.

this is a web site for prople to ask roofers there opions, not what you think it is.
what ever that might be.

and neither one of you touched on the no vents on tile or metal roofs down here.

THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF ROOFS NO ROOF VENTS.
DOIN JUST FINE.

yeah come on know it all roofers whats you exscuse for that?

you started it.

gweedo.

ps. its best to wait till the poster is upset before you start attackin someones credibility.[/quote]

Gweedo, As professional roofers we have all seen cases where a roof was not properly applied, and it worked without major issues.
That is not the point…

When people come to this site with questions they deserve to get the RIGHT answer.
That is why they are here.
Once they have the right answer then you can share your practical experience with them.

In the case of venting, sometimes it is simply not in their budget to fix it correctly.
But to tell them “no ridge vents needed in Florida” is just plain wrong and you know it…

This is the information age and if they try just a little they will end up on a manufacturers site that will tell them that ridge vents are needed for the warranty.
To someone who just bought a roof with a 5 star warranty this is important, they are paying a premium for that warranty…
By and large this type of customer is willing to pay the costs involved to do it right.
Why not give them the service they desire, after all they are willing to pay for it.
Their roof will last longer and look better longer.

When you tell someone that venting is not needed or important you should first tell them that it is required by the manufacturer for the warranty, or that it is required by code.
This is an important piece of information…
You need to explain to them what venting does and why the manufacturer’s require it.
Now they are informed and can make their decision.

I put ridge vent on all ridges, whether I fix the soffits or not.
If the customer chooses to fix the soffits at a later date the roof is ready for it.
It won’t work right until they fix the soffits, but they didn’t want me to do that…
Believe me, I push venting hard, I believe it is that important, especially in my region.
But I am not going to add a day or more to my job for free either…
If I ever run into a customer that tells me they went on the internet and some joker said vents are not needed so they don’t want them, I am going to be livid.
Especially if they start to argue with me about it…

There are cases where ridge vents don’t work well, even if the soffits are open.
Vaulted ceilings with runs over 20’, a roof with a lot of skylights, dormers, reverse gables, etc.
For these types of homes a cold roof is the only good solution, a rather expensive one…
I am in the process of fixing one of these as we speak.
We are going to pull the top and bottom sheeting off and insulators are going to fill the cavity with foam.
In my mind this is an unproven method and I have some questions about it effectiveness…
My concern is moisture build up, the same issue that occurs in warmer regions, like, lets say, Florida.

As for metal roofs and tile roofs.
Most of the metal roofs in my area have ventilation.
There are not many tile roofs around here but I am guessing that there is air space between the deck and the tiles that allows for ventilation.
I have never worked on a tile roof so I am just guessing.

The bottom line Dear Gweedo is that when you tell someone that they don’t need vents, you are giving them bad advice.
On top of that you don’t take the time to explain why in your opinion they don’t need vents.
Engineers have studied and tested this theory and have come to the conclusion that vents are a necessary part of the roofing system.
How long did you study engineering sir?

:smiley: