roof questions

[stircrazy]

Hello, I am finishing up getting estimates to re roof my house. 28 x 50 and 11 years old. I have several questions. My house just has gable vents. For $250 more would I be better off by adding two roof turbines. Is 15 lb felt ok to use verses 30 lb. One roofer told me 30 is basically for flat type roofs and could cause my shingles to buckle. Some of the other roofers said they use 30 lb felt.

[Jim from Canada]

Personally, I prefer to cover the whole roof with Ice/Water shield. I just did mine (photos in my album) and that is the way I did it. It rained before the roof was shingled and we were water tight before the shingles. Check local codes for minimum requirement, then do better. Remember about weight too. Will the walls support the extra load? Naturally 30 lb. felt is 2x heavier than 15lb. felt. Here in Ontario, Canada, min. code is 3' of Ice/Water shield along the edge, and 15lb. felt.
I am sure that if there are any errors in my reply, someone will chime in. I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken! lol. Good luck, and remember, your roof protects everything under it!

Jim

[JD]

In areas where freezing is an issue, using Ice & Water Shield instead of felt, like Jim suggests, is probably a good idea.

In my area where snow, ice and freezing is never an issue in regards to roofing, I recommend cutting the 3' roll of Ice & Water Shield (or Owens Corning WeatherLock) in half and running 18" along the entire perimeter of the home, then use 15# felt as you normally would. If you look on the instructions printed on the wrapper of the shingles (GAF, Elk, Owens Corning, etc), you will see they require 2 layers of roofing felt. Roofers get two layers by overlapping each run of roofing felt by 50%. This gives you the 2 layers everywhere except the eave edges. Most roofers and inspectors overlook this. By using the 18" of Ice & Water Shield, you now do have two layers of roofing felt over the entire roof, provided the roofers ran one course over the ridge cap.

Basically, using 15# felt is better than using 30# felt. For the felt to do what it is supposed to do, thicker is not better. Hot moist air that gathers in an attic area passes through 15# felt better than 30# felt. 30# felt is used for BUR (Built-up Roofing) tar type roofing.

JMO
JD

[stircrazy]

Thanks for the good info. What do you think about the turbines?

[flcruising]

Excellent information there.

I'll chime in by adding, if you have gable vents, do you also have soffit vents? If no, then you wouldn't be gaining a whole lot. If yes, then block off the gable vents because the heat flow could become 'short-cycled'. Basically, the turbines would be drawing in the air from the gables and not pulling it from the soffits.

[stircrazy]

I just received a good quote on my roof that includes putting a ridge vent in. Would a ridge vent work well for a double wide MH. The soffits are vented. Also they want to put two layers of 15 lb felt due to the low angle of the roof, is this a good idea or not.

[Jim from Canada]

Ridge vents and vented soffit work best IMO.

Jim

[flcruising]

Ditto what Jim said.

And like JD mentioned, they achieve the double layer by overlapping half the run.

Suggestion:
The lighter color shingles the better. Preferably white. The less radiant heat obsorbed from the sun = cooler roof = less cooling load. Every little helps.

[stircrazy]

Would the ridge vent affect the marriage joint of the home in any way.

[flcruising]

No. The cap shingles that are there now will be just replaced with ridge vent and new cap shingles. There should be some lag screws that were used to join the two ridge beams together, but these will not be affected.

The only problem I foresee is the sheathing may need to be cut back to allow the air to exist through the new ridge vent. They would just run their circular saw across each side to rip small strips of the sheathing making an air gap. If they're careless though, they may not adjust their blade depth and cut into the roof trusses, just something to be aware of.

[Yanita]

Hi,

I have one of those turbine vents on my roof, if you live in a windy area then you might not like it..I don't mine...seems to make alot of noise (rumble) when the wind blows hard.

If you happen to have a ridge vent installed could you post pics of the steps used to achieve it. LOL, I want that done when it comes time to reroof our home...just want to know what is involved. Does anyone else have pics they could post to this thread about ridge vent installs....

Yanita

[stircrazy]

I will update, with pictures. It will be several weeks, but I have decided to go with the ridge vent. Anything has to help. Thanks for all the great responses.