Ridge Vent Is Its Own Line in a St. Louis Roof Quote

A ridge vent is the strip along the peak of the roof that lets hot attic air leave, and it is one of the few ventilation parts a roofer can price in a way you can check. Many St. Louis quotes mention ventilation in a single word, or fold it into the shingle line, and then the ridge disappears from the total. Read the quote for a ridge line with a footage, a product name, and a labor note before you compare the bottom number with anyone else's.

Where the ridge vent sits in the quote

On a gable roof the ridge runs the full length of the house, and a continuous ridge vent covers most of that length, less the space kept clear at each end. On a hip roof the ridge is shorter, the hip caps carry more of the detail, and the vent footage comes in lower. Either way, the roofer should be able to point to the ridge length on the measurement report and say how many feet of vent the quote counts. If the report shows one length and the ventilation line shows another, one of them is wrong, and that is a question to settle before you compare totals.

A line that says only attic vents or ventilation package tells you nothing about the cost. Ridge vent is usually priced per linear foot, and the cap is often priced separately, so a single lump number hides both. Ask for the split. A roofer who can separate the vent, the cap, and the cut can show you where a lower bid is actually cheaper and where it has simply left a part out.

What the ridge line should say

• The linear footage, matched to the ridge length on the measurement report.
• The vent product by name, with the net free area printed on its packaging or spec sheet.
• Whether the cut through the roof deck along the ridge is included, and who makes it.
• Whether the ridge cap shingles and their nails sit in the same line as the vent, or in the shingle line.

Each of these can move the total. The cut is the item most often missed. The crew has to open a continuous slot in the deck along the ridge, and that work takes time and care. If the cut is not priced, the job still gets done, and the money comes back from somewhere else on the invoice, usually as a change order once the crew is on the roof.

Keys installs Atlas and Malarkey shingles only, so the ridge cap in a Keys quote is normally cut from the same shingle line as the field of the roof. Ask any roofer whether the cap is from the same product line as the field shingles. A mismatch in color or profile at the ridge is visible from the street for years, and the question belongs next to the footage, since the cap and the vent are installed together as one assembly.

The attic side of the number

A ridge vent works only when air can enter low and leave high. The usual rule of thumb in residential work is one square foot of net free vent area for every 150 square feet of attic floor. That figure drops to one square foot for every 300 square feet when the vent is balanced between the eave and the ridge and a vapor retarder is present. The net free area is the open air path after the screening and louvers are counted, and it is printed on the product spec. A roofer should be able to tell you the net figure for the footage in the quote, not just repeat the box label.

The intake side is where the cost hides. Soffit vents, or the gap at the eave, are the air inlet. In many older St. Louis houses, insulation has been blown into the eave over the years, and it blocks the soffit openings. A ridge vent over a blocked eave pulls very little air, and the attic stays warm anyway. Ask whether the quote assumes the existing soffit vents are open, whether the crew will check them from inside the attic, and whether new intake vents are included or listed as an option. An option that is never priced is a cost you will meet later.

Winter makes this more than a comfort question. When the attic runs warm, snow on the upper roof melts, runs down to the cold eave, and refreezes there. That is the ice damming pattern that shows up on St. Louis houses after a run of hard freezes and then a thaw. A balanced vent reduces the heat that starts it. The attic does not need to be perfect for the ridge line to be worth its place in the quote, but the attic does need to be checked before the number is accepted.

Gable vents and the lines you keep

Many houses already have gable vents at each end of the attic. Ask whether the quote keeps them open, closes them, or replaces them. Closing gable vents when a ridge vent is added is a common approach, but it should be a written decision, because it changes the path the air takes through the attic. A quote that adds a ridge vent and says nothing about the gable vents leaves the crew to decide on the day, and that decision can change the bill if a closure, a fan, or a replacement vent needs its own part and labor.

Compare the ridge line the same way on each quote

Put the ridge line on the same sheet you use for shingles, underlayment, drip edge, and flashing. If one quote has a footage and a product and the other has neither, the cheaper number is not the cheaper roof. Ask each roofer for the same facts listed above, then compare the numbers. A roofer who cannot give the footage on the spot can send it in writing, and the time it takes to get that reply is itself useful information about how the job will be run.

Watch for ridge vent that appears as an optional upgrade with its own price. An optional line is fine when the attic truly does not need the vent, but when a roofer offers it as a choice between a cheaper roof and a ventilated one, ask which of the two the roof is designed to be. The answer should follow from the attic measurement and the intake check, not from which total looks better on the page.

Questions to put in writing

1. How many linear feet of ridge vent does the quote count, and does that match the ridge length on the measurement report?
2. Is the vent priced per foot or as a lump sum, and is the ridge cap in the same line?
3. Who cuts the deck along the ridge, and is that cut included in the price?
4. What is the net free area of the vent product named in the quote?
5. Are the soffit intake vents checked, opened, or added, and is that work priced or listed as an option?
6. What happens to the existing gable vents, and is that decision written into the scope?

Keys can walk the ridge with you and read the footage against the measurement report before you compare totals. The office number is (314) 220-2333. Ask for the ridge line in writing, even if the rest of the quote is already on paper, so the vent and the cap are checked against the same report as everything else.