Poor ventilation is the number one reason for roof failure. We see it all the time. Recently, we had a client who had a fairly new roof with all sorts of problems that ended up costing him $90,000 to fix. It’s a big deal.
This particular client had poor product to start with that had a lawsuit against it. It was a well-known issue. We went to his home to do an inspection and checked out the attic to see what was going on. When we got up there, we saw black microbial growth everywhere.
Microbial growth in a poorly-vented attic
His home was fairly new, maybe ten or fifteen years old, but it doesn’t take very long for this kind of stuff to grow with poor ventilation.
Oregon code requires one cubic inch of airflow for every 150 available cubic feet. (You don’t need to understand that, just give us a call and we can help!) Long story short, the builder did not put the roof deck together correctly. It not only caused the roof to fail, it was making his home unhealthy as well.
He had to tear out all the roofing, the plywood, and put on a completely new roof. It was a very expensive project. Sadly, we see this on a daily basis. I go into people’s homes, look at the attic, and find poor attic ventilation. Most builders don’t do anything about it. Most roofers don’t do anything about it.
The best thing to do is give us a call and let us check it out. We go to class every year to learn about ventilation. We’re always trying to evolve, because we don’t want to set you up for failure. We want you to have a healthy roof and a healthy home. It’s very important to us at Roof Life of Oregon.