TRA Snow and Sun Designs New Tile Vent for National Customer

TRA Snow and Sun has redesigned TileVent to meet higher tile roof ventilation needs on Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meetinghouses. Natural resources are conserved when tile roof ventilation is installed.

TRA Snow and Sun of American Fork, Utah, recently created a new

TileVent to be used on meetinghouses for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) with tile roofs. The new TileVent is wider with more ventilation holes than the regular TRA TileVent.

TileVent is a lightweight, corrugated aluminum or copper product used to flash the ridge or hip of a tile roof while, at the same time, allowing air flow from the lower part of the roof to vent up and out through the ridge.

Why is air flow from the eave to the ridge important?

TRA President, Terry Anderson, explains, “If you have ever worked in an attic space on a hot summer day you know how stifling and miserable it can be up there. Obviously roofs and exterior surfaces get hot from the sun during daytime hours and that radiant heat enters the building, in turn heating the air molecules which then naturally travel upward. By venting the roof system, the warm air is sucked out the ridge as cool air enters at the eave. The escaped hot air is replaced by cooler air, thus keeping interior temperatures lower.” In other words, venting promotes a constant temperature from eave to roof ridge, reducing ice dams in winter months while providing energy efficiency and reducing costs all year. Condensation issues are also prevented.

A side benefit is that limited natural resources are conserved because buildings that are vented this way use less energy for cooling. According to a study done by Oakridge National Laboratory, “Venting caused a significant 50% reduction in the heat penetrating the conditioned space compared to the direct-nailed asphalt shingle roof that is in direct contact with the roof deck.*”

TRA Snow and Sun’s regular TileVent, available in 25 foot rolls in widths from 9.5″ – 15.75″, conforms to the surface of the roof at hip or ridge and can stretch up to 30%. It is ICC approved for fire, rain, and dust. Standard installation calls for one roll of TileVent to be placed over the ridge and then adhered down on each side of the ridge on top of the roofing product. A butyl adhesive strip prevents driving snow or rain from entering the roof and allows for 10.3 square inches of net free airflow per running foot of roof.

Most LDS Church meetinghouses have a longer eave to ridge span than the average tile roof building. Creating airflow from eave to ridge over a long length of roof requires much greater exhaust per running foot, hence the new LDS designs which are 11″, 13″, and 17.75″ wide. The 17.75″ wide vent is applied the standard way (one piece running down the ridgeline) but the 11′ and 13″ vent products are applied on both sides of the ridge, rather than one strip wrapping the ridge. All three designs allow for a lot more air flow than the standard – 17.8 square inches of air flow per lineal foot for the 11” wide material, 22 square inches of air flow per lineal foot for the 13” wide material. The 17.75″ wide TileVent used on the LDS church provides more ventilation holes than the standard tile vent which provides 16.2 square inches of air flow per lineal foot.

TRA Snow and Sun, Inc encourages customers to contact them about special products like the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did. Oftentimes new products like this one become available for all other customers.

*William A. Miller, Ph.D. Buildings Technology Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Study Cited: Steep-slope Assembly Testing of Clay and Concrete Tile with and without Cool Pigmented Colors – October 2005

TRA Snow and Sun, Inc., located in American Fork, Utah, offers Roof Snow Retention Devices, Solar Mounting Systems and Roof Ventilation and Flashing Solutions. They are dedicated to improving roofing systems with energy efficiency. Supplying to all types of customers, from the individual homeowners to the big developers. Their engineered designs are always free for all types of systems. For more information call Devin Hancock at TRA Snow and Sun at 800-606-8980, devin(at)trasnowandsun(dot)com, or visit https://trasnowandsun.com/product-category/ventilation-flashing/.