To vent or not to vent... That is the question.

[Mark P]

What are you thoughts on this attic? It has R-13 insulation in both the floor and ceiling. There is no ventulation at all and no signs on any problem either in the attic of to the shingles on the roof. I bet it is hot as hell in the summer and think vents should be added. If vents are added should the insulation in the attic ceiling be removed? Thoughts...

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[ericwlewis]

I was in one similar to this on a warm summer day but it was "comfortable" in the attic. Maybe 90 degrees?

As far as the drawbacks of no ventilation, I have no opinion.[:-paperba

[Marc]

With the insulation envelope in the roof plane, if I vent it at all, it would be with a little air from the HVAC system, just to keep the humidity down.

I don't get what you mean when you say there's insulation at the ceiling level, unless insulation is at both ceiling and roof plane. There's no ceiling insulation in the second photo.

Marc

[kurt]

I'd probably comment that's the usual Cape cobbled insulation method; silly, maybe a draft inhibitor at best, but harmless.

[hausdok]

You would only ventilate it if you are leaving the kneewall attics and the upper attic outside of the conditioned envelope of the house. If you do that, you have to have ventilation to remove the moisture that would migrate into those areas.

When you insulate as they have here, the've made the upper attic and the kneewall attics (I assume) part of the conditioned envelope of the house. That envelope has to be continuous from peek of the ridge to foundation for it to work properly.

Sounds like it's working fine if it's that old and looks as good as it does. If they'd gotten it wrong, all of that kraft paper on the heated side would probably be covered with water spots and be nasty.

Dr. Joe will tell you that keeping everything within the same conditioned space ultimately works better than trying to create a house with conditioned space with all of the systems installed outside of that space.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

P.S.

If any of what I just wrote is absolutely unintelligible, I beg your pardon. I'd pulled an all nighter to get a big horse property report done and no sooner had I finally gotten to sleep than I got woke up. Seems what I sent to them looked like the dead sea scrolls and made no sense. Still can't figure out how I did that. When I opened up the computer to look at what I thought I'd sent them, it was perfect. Resent and they're happy now. Me? Not so much. Still can't figure out where the report written by Beetlejuice came from.

OT - OF!!!

M.

[Brandon Whitmore]

Shouldn't there be continuous ventilation, with a 1" air gap in between the batt insulation and roof sheathing in between each rafter bay? And I'll bet that the warning on the paper facing says that it can't be left exposed......

[kurt]

Yes. It's completely wrong. And the paper facing should be covered.

Capes are always all wrong, but almost always harmlessly wrong. I write the stuff down in as short and concise a sentence I can in my report, indicate there's no apparent problem even though it's wrong, and indicate there's no good way to change it without tearing out the second floor and starting over.

I've yet to find anyone that cares. There's a lot better ways to waste money than trying to take a 50 year old Cape and make it "right".

[John Kogel]

You would only ventilate it if you are leaving the kneewall attics and the upper attic outside of the conditioned envelope of the house. If you do that, you have to have ventilation to remove the moisture that would migrate into those areas.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

P.S.

If any of what I just wrote is absolutely unintelligible, I beg your pardon.

No, that makes sense.

I'd pulled an all nighter to get a big horse property report done and no sooner had I finally gotten to sleep than I got woke up. Seems what I sent to them looked like the dead sea scrolls and made no sense. Still can't figure out how I did that. When I opened up the computer to look at what I thought I'd sent them, it was perfect. Resent and they're happy now. Me? Not so much.

Still can't figure out where the report written by Beetlejuice came from.

OT - OF!!!

M.

I'm thinking you sent the program data file for that inspection instead of the report. My program, HI Pro uses a data file that receives the same name as the pdf report, but would be gibberish to someone not running the same reporting program.

[Bill Kibbel]

Yes. It's completely wrong. And the paper facing should be covered.

Capes are always all wrong, but almost always harmlessly wrong. I write the stuff down in as short and concise a sentence I can in my report, indicate there's no apparent problem even though it's wrong, and indicate there's no good way to change it without tearing out the second floor and starting over.

I've yet to find anyone that cares. There's a lot better ways to waste money than trying to take a 50 year old Cape and make it "right".

Yup. In another half a century, there still won't be any issues from it being "wrong".

[Brandon Whitmore]

Thanks for the replies; thought I was going crazy for a sec.

[Mark P]

I don't get what you mean when you say there's insulation at the ceiling level, unless insulation is at both ceiling and roof plane. There's no ceiling insulation in the second photo.

Marc

There is insulation on all 3 sides of the attic triangle. It just does not look like it in the picture. The knee wall attic spaces are insulated the same way, except they have a floor.

Thanks for the discussion everyone. I like the idea of it being wrong, but not being a problem.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend.