Originally Posted by JeffA
Originally Posted by akmtnrunner
I live in neighborhood that went up fast during the pipeline boom of the 70's, so there wasn't a lot of quality effort. I am super thankful that my Dad talked me into blowing in a bunch of extra roof insulation (and maintaining the airflow) right after buying my place. My neighbors' houses have ridiculous icing issues but mine is pretty much ice free.


Keeping a roof system breathing is completely lost on many DIY'ers.
All my life I've had homes in heavy snow county in Alaska and NW Montana and never had a ice dam on one of them.

Properly insulating and ventilating a home in the south is every bit as important. Summer heat build up in attic spaces will cook asphalt shingles from the bottom up shortening the life of them considerably. Moisture trapped in these non-ventilated spaces creates rot, mildew and mold.

Then there's the spray foam guys....



I totally agree. I built my 3 houses and none every had more than a few 12" ice cycles. I build with Energy Heel trusses. I gives me 8" of insulation room out to the outside of the outside wall. I rarely use the styrofoam air vents anymore. I make the air vents with 1" pink foam . This gives me R5 wiht only 1" of room. I do this about every 3rd truss. Between the trusses that dont have my home made vents , I pack regular insulation about the walls and between the trusses. but push the insulation to the outside of the wall, or at least so I can still see half the top plate of the wall.Then you can use spray foam and foam the top plate of the wall and up to the bottom of the sheathing , under the shingles. Spray the foam up the bottom of the sheathing ( under the shingles) up 4' or so. This eliminates all , or 99% of the ice back damming. Foam is expensive. If its too much , you can take foam sheets and to the same. I put R 60 in my last ceiling with cellulose . I also have 4" of closed cell foam in my walls. The house is so efficient that it would cost me about $1,000 a winter to heat my house at todays rates of Natural gas. It is a 2200 sq. ft. house with bigg windows and 9' ceilings. If I didnt have windows or doors, I dont think it would cost $500 to heat this house. I live in SE Wisconsin in wind swept farm country , so its very windy many days.

But the fruits of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,faithfulness, Gentleness and self control. Against such things there is no law. Galations 5: 22&23