marson wrote:

it's easy to say "take control of your own life" but when a building
inspector is standing there telling you you must have vent space period,
what are you going to do?

Get an architect or PE to sign an "unvented" drawing?

... if i was building my own house and i didn't have to deal with
inspectors, i wouldn't vent the roof either...but i would also be very anal
retentive about my vapor barrier.

Sure. And there are degrees of venting. With near-perfect vapor barriers on
both sides, a small vapor barrier or roof leak could make a lake. Perhaps
the roof should be slightly less airtight than the ceiling, with a ridge
vent but no wind-whistling chutes.

If I were building a new house, I might put insulation in the attic floor
and make the steep south roof clear Dynaglas polycarbonate plastic and make
the underside of the north roof white and collect warm air and light in
the attic in wintertime, with a few simple skylights in the attic floor,
with no venting in wintertime.

Nick