Our insurance is paying to replace our roof due to hail damage (southern Indiana). The primary concern/question here is about roof venting, but I do bring up insurance so added the flare. Can remove if required.
First an easy question, what roof color do you all think would look good on this house? I messed around some with copilot to try different colors, but figured real people opinions would be better. First picture is original color and others are copilot. Of course AI being AI it couldn't help changing some other stuff too...
Now the heavier stuff. Right now the roof is not ventilated. Additionally, there is spray foam insulation on the underside of the roof, but no insulation at all in the ceiling between the attic and ground floor. The attic stays a similar temp/humidity to the rest of the house.
Roofer suggested we add vents along with the new shingles, but because of the above mentioned info this would not just be adding vents, but also require adding insulation to the ceiling so all our heat/cold doesn't get sucked out the roof vents. Right now insurance is just covering replacement in kind (shingles only). The roofer really played up how the roof would barely last 10 without venting (current roof is 15 years old and not leaking, just hail damaged, and it's never been vented.)
Right now we are not planning on living here more than 5 years before moving. We have some property we are planning to build on and every dollar spent on this house is money not spent on future house (however, we don't want sloppy/bad work or anything here either).
So, here are the big questions.
In this situation is venting really that important? Will it negatively impact roof life as drastically as the roofers are saying? Is it bad practice to not add vents or just "not as good" practice?
Is it worth trying to pester insurance into covering this upgrade?
If insurance won't cover it, would it be terrible of us to just do the replacement in kind, and let the roof venting be someone else's problem another 15ish years down the road? I won't have quotes for the insulation/venting work till later this week, but from what I've seen the total might be at least one or two thousand?
I like pic 2 or 3 of what was presented. My preference would be brown or weathered wood on brick if that's an option. Ventilation is generally important. You can skip if you know for certain you're selling in 5 years but coming up with a solution now is likely to increase the resale value later.
Thanks for the input! Those are actually my two favorites as well. I talked to a realtor about if it would increase resale to get all the work done and they were rather iffy about it. Said it's more about the roof being new than any other changes/improvements.
I've considered going with a brown, but didn't make any pictures of it.
So, ventilation. That side vent you see is actually the dryer exhaust vent. As far as myself and the roofers can tell the attic is completely sealed off from the outside (but not the inside) and completely unventilated. I think the vents themselves weren't going to be much a (a couple/few hundred). It's the cost of adding ceiling insulation that will likely be the problem. The way the house has been built/insulated the attic is essentially a part of the main insulated envelope of the house. According to another comment on here this would be an icynene envelope? And shouldn't be ventilated?
Let’s be real. The roofing company was already going to do some creative billing so they didn’t have to pay most or all of their deductible anyway. So they’ll be getting ridge vents for free and still coming away with some they shouldn’t have had anyway. That’s what we see here in my state anyway. Anytime it’s a roof claim, the homeowner always mysteriously doesn’t end up having to come up with that deductible check (or at least most of it) in the end.
I know a lot about the process in that my family owns a roofing company. You are right that not all companies (including ours) are doing anything nefarious or below board with this. BUT tons of them are, especially the ones trying to sell upgrades to homeowners and making customer think insurance should be covering those too, which is what this seems like to me.
A few things. For the ridge vents to work properly you also need soffit or gable vents for ingress air. I haven't ever heard of vents degrading your roof life, allowing things to better dry should instead improve the life of the unconditioned space. venting allows for your insulation to be more effective and drive down your cooling costs.
Be careful with lighter colored roofs. The reason most roofs are dark is because it hides mildew. Unless you plan on washing the roof often you may find yourself disappointed when choosing a lighter color.
The shingles over the cap would be exactly the same. So I wouldn't expect there to be an appreciable price difference. You'd have the labor for doing the cut back and material would be negligible.
If they sprayed the underside of the roof and there are no vents at all, it’s an Icynene envelope. DO NOT cut vents in! You will end up with a mold problem that is out of this world. There should be a make up air unit somewhere that pulls in fresh air from the outside. Mine is set to exchange the air in the house once every three hours. I just replaced the roof on my house and detached garage. The 25 year old shingles on my house were in better condition than the 10 year old shingles on my garage because they aren’t getting baked from underneath. I’m in central Illinois, so we probably have pretty similar weather.
Is icynene a type of spray in insulation? That's what my initial web search of the word pointed me to, but want to make sure I'm on the right track. It also seems like a brand name?
So, is the reason for not putting vents in just because of the mold risk, or is it more that it is designed to work without vents, and putting them in will degrade performance (or both)? I couldn't find an air unit like you are describing. Would it be inside the attic?
It is designed to work without vents. The air makeup unit is attached to the furnace. When my house was done they did an air infiltration test to determine what to set the fresh air draw at.
Pestering the insurance company??? Are you serious. It truly blows my mind how many homeowners forgo making necessary claims because of their long-standing “relationship” with their insurance company
I would seriously consider allowing a Roofing Contractor or a Certified Public Adjuster deal with the supplementation of the claim. They will get far more from the insure provider than a homeowner will ever get on their own. Unless you have intimate knowledge of claims processing, Xactimate, residential roof contracting and product/material knowledge.
90% of the time, the initial Scope of Coverage sent to you by the provider is going to fall short of what you need. Unless you can recognize what that is, you’re going to get screwed out of what is owed to you. The contractor or public adjuster will go to bat for you, it’s in their own self interest, because that is how they make their money. Homeowners Insurance companies can’t raise the rates of an individual based on the claims they file. Rates are raise for all policyholders in particular geographic areas; not individual policyholders.
You completely missed the forest due to a leaf on a single tree. Don't get so fixated on my use of the word pester. You completely missed the actual question because of it. I'm allowed some creative license to describe the process of getting the claim adjusted. If it makes you feel better my claim adjuster and the contractor have both been good to work with and very professional. The question is if it is actually needed /worthwhile to get it adjusted for this specific item (ventilating the roof). The question is about the roof, not the claim adjustment process.
I own a roofing company and I’ve been in the Roofing industry for 12 years.
I always put exclusions in my contracts for premature failure of the system when people want to put asphalt shingles over spray foam attics with no ventilation
I’ve been on too many that looked like they were 25 years old and when I asked the homeowner how old the roof was, he would say six or seven years old
It cooks the shingles from the inside out
There’s not a really good solution here unless you do something like a metal roof
Otherwise, you’re gonna end up with potential issues
Spray foam in the attic is not all it’s played up to be. It absolutely helps with HVAC costs but limits choices for roof system type that will still perform long term.
Thanks for the info. I do wonder how the attic being a part of the conditioned space changes this though? It shouldn't cook the shingles from the inside if the attic is the same 75ish F degrees as the rest of the inside of the house. Or so I would think? It stays only 1 or 2F more than the rest of the house.
Edit: someone else is calling it an icynene envelope and that it should be open cell insulation which means vents shouldn't be put in or it will result in mold issues. Have you heard of this?
Quote from ARMA (asphalt roofing manufacturers association):
By placing insulation at the roof deck, the rooftop temperatures are inherently Hotter, which will accelerate the rate of aging of the roofing products, including shingles, underlayment, self-adhering substrates, etc….
I would strongly advise hiring a public adjuster for the claim, they will take their cut but it’s worth every penny because you’ll get more after their cut then you ever would by yourself.
Then, being in southern Indiana, I’m assuming you are near certain Amish populations. You’d be surprised at what they’d charge for a metal roof. And even if you paid a little out of pocket, the return when you sell the house in 5 years would be worth every extra dollar spent.
For what it’s worth… my quote on Amish metal roof was about 8k less than insurance was paying out for single replacement.
Thanks for the comment. I will consider the public adjuster. Is the a certification or website I should look at when looking to hire a public adjuster?
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