Many different weather conditions can effect your roof. Heavy rain can expose leaks that can occur through the smallest opening, hail can cause enormous dents in flashings and knock granules off of the shingles compromising their integrity.
One of the most damaging elements of weather is high winds. I don’t know how many times I’ve responded to a leak call to find missing shingles as the culprit. This is very troublesome as water has little resistance and will destroy wood, drywall, and insulation, causing dangerous mold and mildew which can effect your whole family. Other areas of concern effected by the wind are ridge vents, B-vents, satellite dishes and numerous other flashings.
Ridge vents are of particular concern, they are the vents at the apex of your roof and their function is to cover the slit made on your roof in order for the attic to ventilate . This is a very big problem because if loose or missing there is absolutely nothing slowing the rain and likely will saturate the inside of your home!
The reason these vents are are so prone to failing has much to do with the way they are designed. They are basically face- nailed..exposing the nail to the elements. Making it worse is poor installation . There are many “roofers” out there that will fail to take the most basic steps to prevent your ridge vent from ending up a guided missile.
First, the vents should be nailed at the rafter areas in order to “bite” and hold.Second the nail heads need to be sealed to prevent the nails from backing out over time. Lastly the ends need to be sealed with plugs in order to keep the vent rigid. Town homes are notorious for this type of repair.
We recently completed a whole development full of ridge vent replacements in Alexandria, Virginia because of workmanship. Before that we completed many of the same in Germantown, Maryland. It seems that no matter what area, the town home builders do not have the quality control over roof installations. We have also done ridge vent repairs on hundreds of single family homes.
Town-homes are of great concern as most built nowadays are at least three stories, making the wind flow much greater on the roof. It is important to look at your roof after heavy wind storm or let us inspect for you. We’ll keep you dry!!
