What Is Ridge Vent?
A ridge vent is installed by cutting a slot through the decking along the ridge, covering it with a low-profile baffled vent, and capping it with ridge shingles. Hot attic air rises and exits through the slot continuously, drawn by the stack effect and by wind moving across the baffle, which creates suction while its design keeps rain and snow out. Because it spans the whole ridge, it exhausts evenly instead of leaving hot dead zones the way scattered box vents do. It fails when the slot was never actually cut (the vent is decorative), when the ridge is too short for the attic volume, or when intake at the soffits is blocked, forcing the vent to pull air — and rain — through itself. Homeowners can check from the attic: daylight along the ridge line means the slot exists. In hot climates like Central Texas, effective ridge exhaust measurably lowers attic temperature and extends shingle life.
Important Distinction
Note: A ridge vent is exhaust only — it works only when matched with intake at the soffits, and combining it with powered attic fans or box vents on the same roof can short-circuit airflow rather than add to it.
Also Known As
These are the search terms and phrases that commonly refer to this topic, so you can find it however you describe it.
How Ridge Vent Relates to Other Topics
A ridge vent only exhausts if air can enter at the soffit; with intake blocked, the ridge vent pulls air from the nearest opening - often itself, drawing rain and dust in instead of pushing hot air out.
A ridge vent is one half of a convection loop: cool air in low at the soffits, hot air out high at the ridge. Judge it as a system - adding ridge vent to a house with no working intake changes almost nothing.
Related To Ridge Vent
Ridge caps over a ridge vent must be nailed with longer fasteners because the vent adds thickness under them; short-nailed caps are why a vented ridge sheds its caps in the first serious wind.
Ventilation is sized in net free area, and the rule is intake-heavy: when exhaust exceeds soffit intake, part of the ridge vent becomes intake, pulling weather in at the exact line the system was supposed to push air out.
Questions about Ridge Vent?
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