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What Are Those Things On My Roof?

There may be several different items on your roof. They each serve an important purpose for the function of your home.

We’ll explore each of these items in this post, and explain their purpose.

1. Sewer piping vent - These allow air to escape from your sewer (Drain) piping system within your home. You can see this pipe protruding vertically from your roof. The Left item in the photo below is a sewer piping vent.

   

   A sewer vent on the left. A Bathroom Exhaust vent on the right.

2. Bathroom exhaust fan discharge hood - This is where the air being sucked out of your bathroom discharges outside. You can see one of these hoods on the right side of the photo above.

3. Ridge Vent - This lets hot air escape out the ridge or “peak” of your roof. These are usually made of plastic, and have a design which keeps out water but allows air to escape through a cut slot in your roof. You can see the top of ridge vents below. The roof shingles are installed overtop of the vent.

   

   A ridge vent.

4. Roof Vent - Similar to a ridge vent, a roof vent lets warm air escape your attic near the ridge or peak. You can see several (black) roof vents below.

   

   Several (black) roof vents in a row. Note the (silver) furnace exhaust vents near the roof vents.

5. Exhaust Flue - This pipe allows exhaust gases from your furnace or hot water tank escape. See photo below of one version of a exhaust flue.

   

   Gas furnace exhaust flue. Note the sewer vent and another exhaust flue off to the left and higher up the roof.

6. Radon Discharge Pipe - Some newer homes have a pipe which looks much like the sewer vent pipe above, but with a rain hood cap over the top of the pipe. These are run to a motorized fan in the attic. This fan pulls air from below your foundation and discharges it above the roof.

7. Heat Tape (wires) - If you see wires running in a zigzag pattern near the bottom (eaves) of your roof, you are likely see heat trace wiring. These wires heat up in the winter months, and help prevent ice dams. Ice dams are a topic for another newsletter, but the wires help melt ice that forms.

   

   An ice dam which has formed at the bottom (eave) of a roof near the gutter line.

Typically, when you have your roof inspected for maintenance, or when you replace your roof, many of these items will be replaced or maintained. This helps prevent roof leaks around these roof penetrations. Holes in your roof are usually where the leaks are, so good maintenance of the components discussed above is important.

Are your home’s detectors too old?

Smoke, fire and carbon monoxide detectors should be replaced every 10 years. After this, their ability to best detect issues in your home are diminished.

Do you know how old your detectors are?

You can usually find a date on the underside of the detector indicating when it was manufactured. Another way to tell is by the color of the detector.

We see many “yellowish” detectors in homes built 15-25 years ago. Why is this?, and is it a problem?

Smoke and fire detectors have a chemical in the plastic casing called Bromine. Bromine is a fire retardant. After several years, this bromine can cause the plastic housing of your detector to turn yellow!

If your detectors are yellowish in color, it is time to at least check the date on the back of the detector. The best thing to do is assume they are too old and replace them, as they probably are.

You can usually buy these detectors in bulk for a good price online. We recommend the following online shop for these:

Luxury Home Feature - Heated Driveway!

No snow shovels, no snow blowers, no robot snow blowers - The snow and ice just melt away!!

These driveways are typically built with a pattern of pipes run below the driveway surface. Liquid within the pipes is heated by a boiler located within your home. This heat quickly melts the snow and ice. Usually the system has moisture and temperature sensors to let it know when to send heat through the system.

If you are planning to re-build your driveway, this would be the time to install this system.

If you have a sloped driveway surface, this is a great solution.

The content of this newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Always perform your own due diligence before making any financial decisions. There are no sponsors of this newsletter.