Huh?

Who has not been puzzled, perplexed and or bewildered? You look at something, read a statement or hear words flow from your best buddies mouth that make you stop and go, Huh!? Yep the ol' head scratcher.

Being a home inspector has left my scalp a few hair follicles sparser and raw from all the head scratching I've done over the years. One things for sure, some houses are scratchier than others. More precisely the home owner - handyman - contractor - DIY enthusiast is the extremely creative type.

Take for example this piece of structural ingenuity. Yes that is an attic and the roof framing. Notice the three vertical laminated boards. They are supporting three other horizontal boards. The horizontal boards are the roof ridge. They are engineered wood. LVLs to be exact. It is not uncommon to find engineered wood in a roof structure. What is unusual is that someone would use three LVLs as a roof ridge board. Normally three LVLs or the same amount of standard lumber would be used as a main support beam for a house.

The roof ridge board may seem like an important part of the roof structure. While it is important, it is also not entirely necessary. Many roofs have been built with out a ridge board, but I don't recommend omitting one.

The purpose of the board is to provide a place to set and secure the rafters. It also does add some strength and stability to the roof structure. Using an engineered board for the ridge is not a bad design idea. The board can be made to the exact length needed, no seams. Further engineered wood is more stable, it will not twist, crown or shrink like standard, dimensional lumber.

Another important part of roof design is incorporating attic venting into the structure. Modern venting consists of a ridge vent and soffit vents. A more effective design than the old gable vents.

The ridge vent, as the name implies, is installed along the roof ridge. A channel is cut into the roof ridge to allow air to flow out of the attic through the ridge vent assembly. Typically this opening is a little over three inches wide. This is a good dimension as it leaves adequate space for air to flow by the ridge board, which would typically be one and a half inches wide. That is the width of a single board. But what happens when you over engineer your roof and use three boards that total a width nearly five inches. Why you get out your saw and start cutting air channels into your LVL ridge board of course.

Ouch my head hurts.