Hey..have a question. Finished a cabin for some folks up in No. Cascades last summer. Got a call back last week to check on a problem…Seems that the snow/ice dams from over the winter had ripped, bent, or torn off all of the vents on the house. Also looks like someone with a sawzall went to town in one of the valleys after the snow melt. Had the plumber install larger dia. vents to preclude and “frosting in” of the pipes due to condensation/cold weather back at rough in. What should have we used instead of PVC, if at all, (poss. through the gables?) and what to fix with. Roof framing is stick framed, so unknown if plumber could have had the right ‘rise’ over the distance to gable. TIA
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Don't have any advise as to your attic ventilation, but up here we use crickets to prevent snow from pushing the pipes over. They're little sheetmetal thingys that screw onto your roof and divert the snow to each side. Like a miniature gable roofed dormer. We get ours custom made, don't know if the metal roof companies have anything.
PVC Tends to get brittle when it's cold, so it might not be the best choice. Take a drive with some binocs and see what other builders have used (look at older buildings, of course.)
Vents need to be located near the ridge in heavy snow country. I suspect you have a metal roof. Bad idea in snow country. Those little murphy splitters don't hold up when a slab of ice lets go. Valleys build up ice and crush everything protruding, including roofing metal ribs and screw heads. I would chase the vents up the rafter bays to the ridge. Not easy or cheap but you will avoid callbacks. A comp roof would also fix things.
Mike