BobVila.com

You have a PLUMBING problem.........

"I have a roofing guy coming tomorrow to give me an estimate on a ridge vent. I think that will help tremendously. There are soffits at the end of the roof so wonder why they never put a ridge vent on top of the house."

Plumbing vent system is completely different than roof vent system.

The plumbing vents are pipes that are continuation of the sewage drain system and the pipe(s) stick straight up through the roof and will not have a cap or termination on them. Other pipes such as furance flue or bath ventalation fans will have caps on them to keep out the rain.

The purpose of the drain vents is to allow gases (smells) to escapse and to allow air in to so that the traps will work properly. Traps are low loops in the drain system that holds water and used to seal the drain from the sewer gases. Often you can't see the traps. But for kitchen sinks and bath vanities it is the U shaped section of pipe right under the sink.

Roof venting is completely different. It is to allow some air to "circulate" through the attic and to remove any moisture that comes throug the ceiling (actually through openings where electrical and pipes are run). If that moisture can't escape then it will condesne and end up with mold.

The other purpose to to get rid of heat that escapes from the house so that it does not warm up the roof and cause snow to melt and then refreeze and form ice dams.

Now you seem to be confusing the terms.

http://www.gordonmott.com/styles.html

If you have an "end of the roof" it sounds like you have a gable style roof. See the above link. And then at the peak of the wall there is a vent. Is that what you have?

The soffit is the lower end of the roof that is boxed out.

This shows a good picture of the soffit.

http://www.homestore.com/HomeGarden/HomeImprovement/HowTos/HowTos/CRHO_InstallingBathVent.asp?poe=homestore

Fig 2. Now in this case there is pipe for bath room exhaust. But usually there are also vents cut in that allow air to come in and flow up the under side of the roof and out the "top" of the roof and take any moisture or heat with it.

Now ridge vents are considered the best roof top vent, but they are fairly new. But if you get them installed you need to close off the gable end vents. That can hurt each other.

But you need to verify that the ridge and soffit vents have enough space for use with the whole house fan.

Here is more information on attic ventalation.

http://www.owenscorning.com/around/ventilation/roofandattic.asp

I believe that you had the house inspected and he pointed out some of these problems.

I don't know if you where at the inspection or not. But I would contact him and PAY him for an hour or 2 of time to go over the house, with you, and point out each of the "features", problems, and things that he things might need attention in the future. And also the names of the different parts of the house.

If he is a good inspector the money will be well spent and save you money in the long run.

If you have plumbing vent problems you could spend ten's of thousand on the roof and you would still have the same problems.

Likewise if you have roofing problems you could spends tens of thousands to replace the whole plumbing system, but you will still have the same roof problems.

Roof