Historic HomeWorks Forum

Lou · Joined: 22 Jul 2021 Posts: 3 Location: Québec, Canada

Hi everyone,
I am a new member of the forum, although I did read a lot of post from the last couple of years on different subject.

I am an old house owner (1890 years old) and l truly appreciate everything that is old fashionned, from the material used, the techniques employed and the finish result. I bought this house 3 years ago. For the short story, it is an old presbytary that has been abannonded for 6-7 years in the seventies before it was bought by the previous owner and refurbished in 1990. The house used to be in plaster with hollow walls. The walls have been insulated with fiberglass batts and the attic and roof with blown in fiberglass wool. The house is what we call here a story and a half house, which means that part of the second floor’s ceiling is the roof itself and part of it the attic.

I don’t know if my walls are rotting (hopefully not…) but my house does have a problem of ice barrier in winter/spring. This means that my house suffers from poor ventilation (obvious – the ventilation channel has been insulated….) and/or poor insulation (4-5 inches of blown in fiber glass wool + thermal bridges). My roof is a cedar shingle roof that is 50 % brand new and 50 % 10 years old, and I plan on keeping this roof as long as possible (FYI : the contractor did use new techniques/material when installing the roof, including a pitch based underrofing membrane and cedar breather plus a ridge vent. From what I have heard afterward, these membranes aren’t 100% recommanded in houses like mine but I can’t do anything about it now… The deck was in perfect condition when the now roof was installed).

I am now looking for the best way to deal with my problem. Although my actual ceiling has been covered with gypsum pannels, I would like in some time to remove these and rehabilitate the old plaster ceiling (although I have no idea if it is still in a good enough shape for this).

The only way I see I could tackle this issue without removing the roof is by removing the actual ceiling from the inside, remove the actual insulation and create a ventilation channel and then put back some sort of breathable insulation like rockwool and hope it work. Unfortunately, this would mean removing my plaster wall and reading several post from this forum, this could mean traping humidity in my walls in the future.

I guess that ice barrier were not a problem back then because the hollow roof cavity acted as a vent and even if a lot of heat (I guess) was escaping from there, it was expulsed from the home without causing problems.

What are your thoughts about my problem?

Thank you,

johnleeke · Posted: Sun Nov 07, 2021 2:24 pm Post subject:

I'm not sure what you mean by "ice barrier." Where is the ice forming? Can you provide a photo or illustration of that?

Lou · Joined: 22 Jul 2021 Posts: 3 Location: Québec, Canada

johnleeke · Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2021 4:31 pm Post subject:

Sometimes heating cables install on the roof near the eaves are effective. More here:
https://www.startribune.com/heat-cable-installation/565469132/

Lou · Joined: 22 Jul 2021 Posts: 3 Location: Québec, Canada

johnleeke · Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2022 10:21 am Post subject:

100 years ago houses were not heated as much as they are now, so there was much less roof top melting.
Heating cables can last 10 to 20 years, but should be inspected at least every other year to assure they are in good operating condition.
To help keep your wall dry ventilate the inside of the overhang with vents in the soffit, and ventilate the attic to keep the rafters, roof deck and wall plate dry. My book, Practical Restoration Reports Compendium shows some details on this:
http://historichomeworks.com/publications/#compendium