Live in Katy and want to add a ridge vent to my garage. Completely unfinished, uninsulated with no radiant barrier and it gets unbearable in the summer after just a few minutes. I was looking at the underside of the roof decking and it looks like there is a gap between the ends of the plywood already at the peak, but no ridge vent was installed like on the rest of the house. 2 questions.

1- how much of a project would this be for a relative novice? Like I said, it looks as if the gap under the shingles is already there so I don't think I'd have to cut the plywood, just remove the cap row of shingles and re-shingle over the vent.

2-anyone have an idea of what this would cost to have someone put in for me? Single run of about 10 feet. Any recommendations in the Houston area for someone that could do it?

Are there soffit vents? If not, then you would need to install these as well so there is proper air flow for the ridge vents to work.

A few whirly birds may work better in an unfinished garage.

How unfinished is your garage? Does it have a sheetrock ceiling?

1. Remove the shingles forming the ridge cap.
2. Make sure that there is a gap between the roof deck and the main ridge beam. You may have to trim the shingles on the roof deck to open the gap. You may also have to cut the roof deck with a circular saw.
3. Cut the ridge vent to length and nail in place.
4. Cut new shingles and nail on the new ridge vent.
5. Check out youtube to see if someone has filmed the process.

6. I would think this would cost around $300.

Completely unfinished except it has as a plywood attic floor over about half of the garage but everything is open. I do have soffit vents around the entire perimeter as well as one lone roof vent on the back slope. I just don't get why a builder would put all of this thought and effort to outfit a garage with a drop down ladder, built in workbench and shelves, pegboard on an entire wall, yet not provide adequate ventilation to work out there most of the year. You can see the gap in the decking at the peak in the first picture. Just don't know if it's wide enough.





[This message has been edited by 1208HawkTree (edited 6/16/2010 7:55p).]

Add a window unit A/C.

I've considered it but the window slides horizontally and I've yet to find a model that can be installed that way. I don't want a big rolling floor model that has the hose to exhaust heat. Plus, the garage is oversized (10' extension) so wouldn't exactly be energy efficient, but that was he first thing I thought of because the window is where i'm working 90% of the time.

The ridge vent is the way to go because it would match the rest of the house but if that is more money than you want to spend then as redag said, install a couple turbine vents. No matter which you do I think I would complete decking the attic area. This would isolate most of the heat in the upper area of the building and the vents could do their job. My garage has about 10" of insulation above the ceiling and 6" in the walls and three 3 turbines but without a fan blowing on me it is still too hot to work out there in the afternoon even with the two windows and the door open.

Let us know what you do.