[geraldthehamster[_2_]]

I spent much of today helping a friend pull out a ceiling, in a
former granary barn attached to a former farmhouse - downstairs in the
former barn is the kitchen, and upstairs is a bedroom; it's a 1 1/2
storey affair so between the vertical walls and the horizontal ceiling
is a biggish sloping bit of roof. Rafters are 3 x 2, with a
supposedly breathable membrane on the outside, under pantiles. A
previous owner had put fibreglass insulation between the rafters and
boarded the whole thing with pin board, which he papered. There's an
en-suite, with an extractor fan to the outside. It's taken my friend
more than ten years to get round to renovating this bit of the house.

Inadequate insulation, no through ventilation, no vapour barrier. Two
people sleeping, and using the bathroom, sometimes with the door open.
The insulation we pulled out was damp, the underside of the felting
was absolutely dripping, and the timbers were wet in many places -
fortunately there are no immediately visible signs of rot.

This will be re-done properly; I just wanted to illustrate the point!

Cheers
Richard