TL;DR
A roof cricket is a small ridged structure—a peaked saddle—built on the high side of a chimney or other wide roof obstruction to split water flowing down the slope and steer it around rather than letting it pond against the back. The IRC requires one behind chimneys wider than 30 inches, framed and flashed into the surrounding roofing, often clad in metal.
What it means
A roof cricket is a small ridged structure—a peaked saddle—built on the high side of a chimney or other wide roof obstruction to split water flowing down the slope and steer it around rather than letting it pond against the back. The IRC requires one behind chimneys wider than 30 inches, framed and flashed into the surrounding roofing, often clad in metal. Missing or flat-built versions explain a large share of the rot and leakage found at chimney backs during roof replacements.
Where it sits in the glossary
Roof cricket is part of the Trade jargon group inside the ProFix Directory glossary. Browse every term in this category from the glossary index.
Why Ohio homeowners should know it
This is a term Ohio homeowners encounter when reading contractor quotes, hiring paperwork, or inspection reports. Understanding it well enough to ask one good follow-up question is usually all the protection a homeowner needs.
ProFix Directory keeps definitions short on the index page and saves the longer context — Ohio-specific rules, where the term comes from, and which ProFix tools touch it — for these per-term pages so the term is easy to cite and easy to share.
ProFix tools that touch this term
See also
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