I inspected a house yesterday with spray foam insulation in the attic. The attic is conditioned and there is evidence of ventilation.
I have never come across this situation before and I am not sure how to report it. On my standard form I report the type of attic ventilation and the average depth of the insulation.
Can someone help.
Regards,
John
Google has this info.
https://www.google.ca/webhp#q=spray+foam+insulation+under+roof+sheathing
Any given attic space should be fully within or fully outside of the building thermal envelope. If the attic assembly is an unvented type (previously called a conditioned attic), then it should be fully within the building thermal envelope. Unvented attics, as the name implies, should not have attic vents, either at the soffit or the roof.
A vented attic on the other hand should have insulation at the ceiling, not affixed to the underside of the roof decking and should be ventilated. A vented attic exists outside of the thermal envelope.
What you describe is neither fish nor fowl: “spray foam insulation in the attic”, “attic is conditioned” are attributes of an unvented attic; while “evidence of ventilation” is an attribute of a vented attic. If these characteristics do actually coexist in the same attic space, it’s misconfigured and deficient.
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