Condensation

I have an historic stone home and had a standing seam tern roof installed nearly twenty years ago. The look and color is great and matches the what it was painted in 1856. The roof was installed directly over the sheathing boards that originally held oak shakes so the metal roof back is open to the attic. The problem that we have is condensation all winter long - it rains all the time. The problem has gotten worse with the installation of Geothermal heating installed four years ago. One suggestion that has come up is putting up non-perforated radiant bubble insulation between the roof trusses with a slight sage to allow air flow from the eaves to the ridge. I know the first suggestion is to insulated the attic floor really well - we did that and even had insulation blown into the wall voids of the second floor. This helped a little but it still rains. Any suggestions would be most appreciated. The house is large with the front block being 30'x40' and the back wing 24'x30'

Hello, The attic is vented at the ridge over both wings of the house and it is relatively open at the base that extends out over the gutters (not much, but it does allow airflow). There are also three full size windows in the attic that we leave shut. The floor boards were all taken up and insulation was blown in filling the entire cavity as well as the upper portions of the wall voids on the second floor. The house was balloon constructed so in center of the house you can take up the floor in the attic (move the insulation) and see into the basement. I suspect that this adds to the moisture movement to the attic, but we have done all we can with the insulation. We had considered the spray foam option for the roof itself, but were worried about impacting our warrantee and have heard that some types of foam can expand through the seams to the exterior. There are two types of foam - one that allows some moisture and a second that is closed - which do you recommend? Thank you again for the information and help!! Ray

How is the attic vented? You have two options, air seal and insulate the floor so that as little as possible conditioned air is making it attic. Your other option is to covert the attic into a conditioned space and spray foam the underside of the roof.