My husband and I are in the process of purchasing a home with a metal roof and just had our home inspection. The inspector said that the roof area he could see showed that the insulation was installed directly against the roof decking. He said this could be a problem and eventually lead to rot. The house has really funky angles and there is almost no attic space, just ceiling, insulation, decking, roof. So there is no way to see any other area, just the little attic area where he saw that it had been installed directly on the decking. Could this be a huge problem? I tried speaking with the inspector, but he would not commit to a direct answer, only restated what he saw. The other problem we are running into is that our realtor is a dual agent. Does anyone have any advice as to how big of a problem this could be or how easy/hard it would be to fix it?
Thank you.
Guest User
2016-07-06 15:48:25.000000
The concern is that warm moist air from inside the living space migrates into the attic, perhaps gets behind the insulation, and condenses on the back side of the roof deck. If the home has been this way for awhile and there is no evidence of mold / rot ... as long as nothing is changed in the future, it will likely be fine. However, if you do things that increase the moisture level in the living space, that could be an issue. Those things could include changes in habits of cooking, laundry, bathing. Those things could also include more house plants or adding a ventless gas fireplace. Also, if you do things that make the home more airtight such as new windows or doors or house wrap and siding ... all of those things could increase the moisture level and the risk of problems. It would be interesting to know if there is a vapor barrier (typically polyethylene) behind the drywall on the ceilings and walls ... if there is, that really helps keep moisture out of the attic.
Todd Miller
2016-07-06 16:17:10.000000
+1
If it has worked so far, no reason to suspect it would change. Feel free to post up a picture of the roof, attic, or anything else that is noteworthy and I will give you some more directed feedback.
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