Most ridgeventing that is out there today are covered by shingle caps making them somewhat invisible. A concern with your a-frame is the steep pitched roof and how the ridgeventing/shingle caps will contour over that steep pitch. I would say it is doable but you will probably have to go with wider shingle caps to cover the ridgevent each side. As far as seeing it from the front, most ridgeventing stops back from the overhangs except on hip type roofs where they plane in where the hips meet the ridge. Im not sure you have much of a cosmetic challenge here, just the steep pitched roof and how that will affect the install.

Unless you take steps to hold the insulation away from the bottom of the roof deck a ridge vent will not work. No airflow.

If you have used baffles or rigid insulation held off the bottom of the roof deck a ridge vent will work, and the steepness of the roof pitch only makes the air flow better.

brick, yes, we're going to make sure that the insulation is properly away from the soffit vents--is that what you are referring to? Also we're pretty sure there is space between the insulation (if there is any--it gets SO hot and cold up there!) and the roof substrate.

sierraeast, The pitch isn't incredibly steep, like an alpine A-frame--it's quite walkable--it's just that the house is built with one big simple folded-piece of paper roof. And yes, the shingles generally cover from the sides, which is why I was wondering what can cover the raw cut edge from the front. So if I understand you correctly, the ridge vent won't be right up flush against the front edge of the roof? That's good to know. Guess I'll just have to watch what happens and make sure somehow it ends up with no raw-edge exposure.

Hi Flyleft, Typically if you have overhangs, the ridgeventing only goes up to the last arfter space that is insulated and the shingle caps "fade" into a typical non vented shingle cap install over the over hang area, so you shouldn't see any raw edge other than what you would with a ridgecap install w/o venting. I always like to tuck the ridgecap end at the ends of gables as well as hip roof end caps back under themselves so you dont see a cut or raw edge, but rather a folded shingle edging.

As brickeye stated, you are going to want to know if there is an air space between the insulation and roof sheathing, typically 1-1/2" - 2" or ridgeventing will do little or no good. Fiberglass insulation allows air to infiltrate, but not enough for ventilation concerning ridgeventing. You are going to want to be more than pretty sure and this could involve pulling a sheet of sheathing to inspect, then go from there.

Thanks, sierra. Yes, we're going to check, definitely. Don't worry :) All I meant was that even before we check, we're pretty sure. I'm fond of my information, so if there's research to be done, I'll get to it :)

I'll discuss what you described in the earlier post to our roofer and see if that's what he's planning. The specifics really help a lot. Thanks again!

Fly,

Do you know what either the pitch or the slope of your roof is?

I'm trying to get a feel if you have a steep A-frame, which is usually unwalkable, or if this is just a simple gable roof, something along the lines of a 8/12 or 10/12 rise/run.

Is your fear haivng the end of the ridge look like this:

If so then you can do what the other guys have mentioned, stop the vent prior to the rake and blend the ridge/cap shingles back to flush with the roof shingles.