A couple of years ago a raccoon ripped open an eave vent in a cathedral
ceiling next to the chimney and just above a casement window and moved
in. It took awhile for me to catch on. I eventually caught and
relocated several raccoons and had the vent repaired. I sleep just
beneath that cathedral ceiling in the loft. B4 the repair I was able to
sit in the casement window and hold a digital camera in the hole and
snap a few pictures. It appeared that any insulation in there had been
pushed back. I'm guessing fiberglass batts. The repair was combined
with re-siding several months later, and the insulation was never
replaced (my bad). I can confirm this in both winter and summer by
reaching up and feeling the temp differential in that one 16"? run in
the ceiling. I can touch the ceiling from the loft. I'm thinking about
cutting a wide hole through the ceiling sheetrock and blowing some
cellulose into that run. How doable is this (inside the house), and
what alternatives are there?

p.s. there is some chance that I may reroof in the near future (hail
damage). This roof is 2 1/2 stories up. Would it be easier to do this
repair then? Of course the roofers in this area are swamped and want to
do the roof and run to the next job.

fixing it from the outside would be better, but at two stories up it
might be tough. I would try to get a roofer to do it, and if that
didn't work, you can always go back to fixing it from the inside. you
might try cutting a smallish hole in the sheetrock and sliding a hose
down there and blowing cellulose in working it up. that's a lot of
work too. you'll have to get a blower for one bag of cellulose, create
the mother of all messes, etc. the other option is to remove sheetrock
from most of the joist bay and use fiberglass batts. then you would
have a large patch to contend with.


finding z0 wrote:
A couple of years ago a raccoon ripped open an eave vent in a cathedral
ceiling next to the chimney and just above a casement window and moved
in. It took awhile for me to catch on. I eventually caught and
relocated several raccoons and had the vent repaired. I sleep just
beneath that cathedral ceiling in the loft. B4 the repair I was able to
sit in the casement window and hold a digital camera in the hole and
snap a few pictures. It appeared that any insulation in there had been
pushed back. I'm guessing fiberglass batts. The repair was combined
with re-siding several months later, and the insulation was never
replaced (my bad). I can confirm this in both winter and summer by
reaching up and feeling the temp differential in that one 16"? run in
the ceiling. I can touch the ceiling from the loft. I'm thinking about
cutting a wide hole through the ceiling sheetrock and blowing some
cellulose into that run. How doable is this (inside the house), and
what alternatives are there?

p.s. there is some chance that I may reroof in the near future (hail
damage). This roof is 2 1/2 stories up. Would it be easier to do this
repair then? Of course the roofers in this area are swamped and want to
do the roof and run to the next job.

Foam peanuts? Sounds like a bad idea. Cellulose? Sounds bad too: you DO
want air circulation just under the roof surface, you DONT want
cellulose in a place that might get even a tiny leak, and cellulose
makes a huge mess (it was worth it to do my whole house, but anything
less would have not been worth it). I'd go with fiberglass from inside.

've learned that the _size_ of the patch does not matter so much --
more is the complexity of the job. This would be a real easy job, b/c
you have the two rafters on either side. Cut the drywall right down the
center of those rafters, maybe 6 feet long and one bay wide. Add your
fiberglass. Then replace the drywall. You have the half rafter on
either side to screw it on to (and to add screws on both sides of the
cut). At the top and bottom, you can leave it loose and just do drywall
tape, or stick a 1x4 up behind the cut to give you something to screw
into.

-Kevin

finding z0 wrote:
marson wrote:
fixing it from the outside would be better, but at two stories up it
might be tough. I would try to get a roofer to do it, and if that
didn't work, you can always go back to fixing it from the inside. you
might try cutting a smallish hole in the sheetrock and sliding a hose
down there and blowing cellulose in working it up. that's a lot of
work too. you'll have to get a blower for one bag of cellulose, create
the mother of all messes, etc. the other option is to remove sheetrock
from most of the joist bay and use fiberglass batts. then you would
have a large patch to contend with.

Pretty much where my thinking ended up as well. Another issue is how
to prevent the cellulse from blocking either end where the air
circulates to the eave vents. It's a half roof with eave vents on top
and bottom. Some suggested making a small hole and pushing foam peanuts
up there....not sure if they are right for the job...lol...

On 17 Jul 2006 08:50:01 -0700, "finding z0" wrote:


marson wrote:
fixing it from the outside would be better, but at two stories up it
might be tough. I would try to get a roofer to do it, and if that
didn't work, you can always go back to fixing it from the inside. you
might try cutting a smallish hole in the sheetrock and sliding a hose
down there and blowing cellulose in working it up. that's a lot of
work too. you'll have to get a blower for one bag of cellulose, create
the mother of all messes, etc. the other option is to remove sheetrock
from most of the joist bay and use fiberglass batts. then you would
have a large patch to contend with.

Pretty much where my thinking ended up as well. Another issue is how
to prevent the cellulse from blocking either end where the air
circulates to the eave vents. It's a half roof with eave vents on top
and bottom. Some suggested making a small hole and pushing foam peanuts
up there....not sure if they are right for the job...lol...

Lowe's and home depot sell some ventilating baffles made of thin foam
so you have a path for air to circulation from soffit to ridge/roof
vent. The ones I saw come in 4 feet length and are as wide as most
roof rafters. Then you lay your insulation between them and your
sheetrock ceiling and you have ventilation next to the roof and
insulation next to your ceiling.

marson wrote:
technically you need ventilation. however, leaving one rafter cavity
without ventilation is not going to cause a total system failure.

Is this true? I never thought much about it, but seems like you might
just end up with only one area of ruined, useless, leaking, melted
shingles rather than a whole roof full of them. Is that much of an
improvement?

-Kevin