power vents and turtle backs

Dont get me wrong i have done it and probably will again someday if it means the job or not -- On more than one occaison i have re -installed an electric power fan and they quit working shortly after we do the roof then the homeowner thinks we caused it -- But it has been working fine for 50 years until you did the roof - are you sure you did not break it?

Ideally, you make sure that the soffit is open so that the air can flow. All the soffit vents in the world won't do any good if the plate is plugged full of insulation. we normally tear out the old soffit and clear out the opening and then install a fully vented aluminum soffit. Once the air can get into the attic, the ridge vent is the way to go. IF you use a power vent with a ridgevent, the power vent will creat a negative pressure beneath the ridgevent and draw air from the ridge and exhaust it out the vent. It may draw some from the soffit, but it is easier for the air to come from the ridge which is nearby.

A power vent with plugged soffit will certainly draw the air from somewhere else...all a bad thing!

Fayetteroofing, I hesitate to suggest this because I don't want to insult you-,however- if you have a chance I think it might be helpfull for you to attend an AirFlow seminar if the opportunity presents itself.

Before I go farther- let me just say that in general, I think these types of seminars are 99% designed to simply hype a particular manufacturers product-specifically Airflow and Certainteed- but if you get ONE good idea out of it, it can be big money over the years. The certainteed sales seminars in particular- I got one idea from one seminar-and a second idea from the SAME seminar a couple years later- those two ideas together I am SURE have added$200,000 over the last 15 years AT LEAST.

If you were to go to an Airflow seminar-at the very least- you would have a better idea how to handle this type of customer-and have actual lit. available to show him exactly how his idea is possibly going to cause him problems.

I say POSSIBLY going to cause problems-because maybe doing as he wants-won't cause a problem-9 times out of 10-or 99 times out of 100. in my case- for over 20 years it never caused a problem-untill I had TWO problems in the same year-and right across the street from each other!!!!!

so- now I know better-and have added another item to the list of" things I absolutely won't do"

He's a hardhead and wants to have some say in the job. What he is saying is sort or silly but who cares since it will not matter much. Let him be satisified that he got you to do what HE wanted. Its his house after all right? The attic will still ventilate just fine since the openings for the vents are up near the ridge. Get that job or someone else will. If he wanted power fans that are fully functional mixed with ridge vent i would decline. lol