Low-Profile Ridge Vents

In the last decade, a number of “low-profile” ridge vents have come on the market. Unlike conventional metal ridge vents, the new vents can be shingled over so they are hardly visible against the rest of the roof. We chose to evaluate nine low-profile ridge vents, including Cobra Ridge Vent, Cor-A-Vent, Highpoint Vent, Ridge Master, Roll Vent, Shingle- Over Ridge Vent, Shinglevent II, Top Cat, and Venturi Vent. All of these are widely available. Our investigation was prompted by questions from readers about which vents work best, and by reports of windblown snow leaking through some types of low-profile vents. To evaluate each product, we installed the vents along a 30-foot gable roof with a 4:12 pitch and soffit vents on both sides. We observed the vents through one Vermont winter, looking for