Insulating over an active leak is how a small repair becomes a deck replacement.
Wet insulation has almost no R-value, and it stays wet: the material holds the water against the ceiling and the joists for weeks. So when we find water in an attic, everything stops until the source is dealt with.
The source is not always the roof. In Toronto attics the four we find, in order, are condensation from household air leaking into a cold unventilated attic, ice damming at the eaves, plumbing vent flashing, and genuine roof failure. Only the last one is a roofing job, and the first one — by a distance the commonest — is an insulation and ventilation job.
We are not roofers. We find and document the water, photograph it, and tell you which of the four it is. If it is the roof we will tell you to get a roofer first and we will not quote insulation until it is done.
Pattern and timing. Condensation stains spread evenly across the sheathing and are worst near the eaves and around bath fans. A leak runs from a point and follows framing. And condensation appears in January, not in a rainstorm.
Related
Book an attic check
You get the depth, the tier, the dollar figure and the photographs, whether or not you go ahead with us.
