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Roofers put roof vents on new house, but we want FOAM! Problem?

8 years ago

Hi,

We are building a new home and specified foam insulation, with the understanding that the roof would be insulated. The roofers just finished and we noticed that they not only put vents on the roof above the garage which will be conventionally insulated, but also the main part of the house which we want to foam.

Can that be fixed, is it not a problem, or do they need to replace that section of roofing?

Advice would be appreciated before I discuss it with builder.

Thanks!

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Comments (4)

amberm145
8 years ago
In my jurisdiction, the inspectors, who haven't updated their knowledge of building science since the 60s, insist on roof vents. All roofs must be vented. Period. If you're doing foam, you're expected to put in baffles and then spray the foam against that.

Some people put fake vents on the roof to let the inspectors believe there's venting.

And just to make it extra fun and ridiculous, soffit vents are banned here. Houses are close together, and if your neighbor's house catches fire, there's a fear that the flames will enter your house through the vents. So roofs HAVE to be vented, but they can't be vented properly.
User
8 years ago
If you are talking about a ridge vent, it can be removed. Eave vents would be a bit more work.
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even with a power vent you will want some soffit vents. my house had nothing but 5 gable vents when we bought it. i put in a power vent and it WILL suck cool air from teh house into the attic. i have to go back and install some soffit vents, but i am going to wait until we paint the house to do it. if your house has foam or blown insulation, then installiong soffit vents requires that you put in baffles. but if yours is like mine, we only have roll insulation ont eh ceilings, and nothing in the soffits or between the roof joists, all you have to do is cut the holes and screw the vent covers in place. to install them myself on my house is going to run me less than 75.00 for all teh parts, and that is putting roughly 30 vents in. i found them cheapest at a local discount lumber yard. these already have the screens to keep out bugs as well.
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We just discovered that a room addition added to the side of our house also had the vent added to the front section of the roof instead of the back. I can't imagine why they did that. It wasn't on any drawings the general contractor did for us before the project started. Only a ridge vent was shown in the drawings. I've expressed to the GC that I want it corrected but would also like an explanation. I don't know what it costs to make the correction but I can't imagine leaving it on the front of the house. Is this a big deal to get fixed?
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PRO
Springtime Builders
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Amberm, curious what city enforces that and wonder how common it is. Its two very different requirements than most areas.

Iam guessing Neil's soffit eave vents aren't done yet which is considered more important than ridge vents in some researchers opinions for venting vented-roofs. Sounds like Neil wants an un-vented roof and agree with JDS it wont be hard to re-cap the roof to achieve it.

Be careful getting skimped on spray foam thickness. Its common industry practice to spray well under minimum R value requirements. Most of the country falls under R38 and R49 international level prescriptive code which is considered by many to be cost-effective. This means 10.5" or 13.5" thick of open cell spray foam as a minimum.

If saving energy with spray foam is a goal, you should make sure your builder is planning a blower door test. The results are more important and could highly influence your questionable roof performance.
amberm145
8 years ago
It's a western Canadian city. And both are common with inner city infill builds. They are close together, and they're often higher end builds with prices that justify the extra cost of insulation.

We didn't do spray foam because our environmental consultant did an energy model and it didn't make sense for us.

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