How do you repair a roof ridge vent?
Common failures and the matching fix
- Cap shingles blown off: often caused by nails too short to grip the decking through the vent. The fix is new caps with nails that reach the deck, not reusing the old holes.
- Vent crushed or cracked: foot traffic, a falling limb, or hail can split a plastic ridge vent. Cut out the damaged section, splice in new vent over the slot, and recap.
- Nails backed out: raised heads cut up through the caps above them. Pull and replace them; driving them back in rarely holds.
- Missing end plugs: an open end lets in rain, wasps and squirrels. Most products have end closures that can be added.
- Leaks in sideways rain: older roll vents without an external baffle or filter can admit storm-driven rain. Replacing that run with a baffled product is the dependable fix.
What not to do
Do not caulk or tar over the vent openings to stop a leak. That shuts off the attic exhaust, and in a Georgia summer it pushes attic temperatures up and shortens shingle life. Also do not assume every drip near the peak is the vent. A leaking plumbing boot near the ridge, frost melting off nail tips after a cold night, or a bath fan duct dumping into the attic can all look like a ridge leak from below.
When repair turns into replacement
If the roof is near the end of its life, a ridge vent repair is a patch on a system that will be replaced soon anyway. On a newer roof, a properly spliced section blends in fine. Hail strong enough to crack a vent often bruised the shingles too, so look at the rest of the roof before deciding. Common roof leak causes and ridge vent vs box vents help sort it out.