Ridge Vents

[techman]

Our original roof (26 years ago) has ridge vents with an aluminium cap. The sides had small louvres for the air flow. With blowing snow, some did get through the openings. We would get a dusting of snow in the attic. Never enough to really make anything wet and nothing was ever ruined, but it was an issue. When we re-roofed we put on new vents. I do not know the brand, but the "framing" is plastic. The vent area has something like a plastic steel wool as the barrier. Never had any snow or rain infiltration with the new stuff.

paul

 

[PILOON]

Here is a link to Maximum Vent
http://www.ventilation-maximum.com/English/pdf/product_model301.pdf

 

[JerryK]

I had an issue just before this Christmas... two flying squirrels ate thru the ends of my plastic ridge vents and got into the attic. Had to wack down five big sugar maples on the East side of my house to keep them from gliding down onto the roof. Next year, the plastic vent is going and putting something more substantial in... So, 1 vote for non-plastic....

 

[npalen]

I had an issue just before this Christmas... two flying squirrels ate thru the ends of my plastic ridge vents and got into the attic. Had to wack down five big sugar maples on the East side of my house to keep them from gliding down onto the roof. Next year, the plastic vent is going and putting something more substantial in... So, 1 vote for non-plastic....

Tell me you didn't "wack down five big sugar maples". Because of squirrels?

 

[npalen]

I had an issue just before this Christmas... two flying squirrels ate thru the ends of my plastic ridge vents and got into the attic. Had to wack down five big sugar maples on the East side of my house to keep them from gliding down onto the roof. Next year, the plastic vent is going and putting something more substantial in... So, 1 vote for non-plastic....

Tell me you didn't "wack down five big sugar maples". Because of squirrels?

 

[JerryK]

Tell me you didn't "wack down five big sugar maples". Because of squirrels?

Yup, those little buggers can glide at up to 40% slope, depending on wind. So, since the trees are up to 90' high, they can go a long way... You could see the spots they landed on the house and where they landed when leaving the roof in the snow. The trees provided no shade to my house, and several had to come down 'cuz they were leaning towards the house. Here is a picture of the lean, and one with four of the five down. Next Spring, I am going to fire up my chipper and wack them up the rest of the way.

 

[Looking4new]

Yup, those little buggers can glide at up to 40% slope, depending on wind. So, since the trees are up to 90' high, they can go a long way... You could see the spots they landed on the house and where they landed when leaving the roof in the snow. The trees provided no shade to my house, and several had to come down 'cuz they were leaning towards the house. Here is a picture of the lean, and one with four of the five down. Next Spring, I am going to fire up my chipper and wack them up the rest of the way.

I don't care if it is made of solid gold, threaten my house and down it comes. End of story.

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm a huge fan of trees and early on would go to extremes to try and save one by building around it. Roads that made detours because of a tree, or just planning the location of a barn or shed. I even build a house farther back then I wanted to save a big old oak tree that led to a small backyard which ended up hurting my sales price of that house.

I've learned that if the tree is in the way, it's coming out. I've also found out that once the tree is gone, I never miss it or even think about it again. It's gone and that's that. Here, trees are weeds. If you don't work real hard at keeping them out of your pasture, they will take over!!! But what really did it for me was spending all that money, time and effort to work around an existing tree just to have it die on me, or even worse, drop branches on my fence.

My neighbor fenced in his place and spent tens of thousands of dollars. Every year, he has branches falling on it it. He is now removing all those trees next to his fence. It's cheaper to not have them then deal with the damage they cause.

I'm removing every tree anywhere near where my fence line.

 

[npalen]

My comment in post #15 above was just a "bit tongue in cheek". Our house was built by the local Voc-Tech school back in 1974. It was moved onto this lot which is 200' wide and placed against the east border as there was a hackberry in the way. The hackberry has since died and, yes, mostly forgotten.
So then we planted three Bradford Pear next to the house which have since come down in storms damaging the roof. We had the area landscaped several years ago to fit around them prior to losing them. Oh, yes, there was also a large Scots Pine that was landscaped around but it succumbed to the pine wilt beatle since. I won't go into the Bradford pear planted too close to the house and driveway.

 

[PILOON]

Re trees; in my rural area (really mostly forest) we even need a permit to cut a dead tree.
Our permit dept claims the birds need to roost on the dead branches.
Near the lake front simply forget getting a permit, at least for 30 ft.
Folks do develop various techniques to get around the regs, like cut flush to ground and quickly pile earth to hide the stump and haul the evidence off to the forest.
They actually will tell you that such and such a tree can remain for XX years before it will become dangerous.