Has anyone removed or replaced insulation in their tongue and groove ceiling without removing the boards? How did you go about it? We recently bought a house in Canada and would like to increase the insulation R value. We would really like to keep the ceiling as-is but also have it be cost-effective.
Members of our facebook group for midcentury home owners were happy to help.
Below are some examples of members thoughts on the topic. These are only a few of the thousands of tips that are shared in our exclusive Facebook Group dedicated to midcentury modern home owners. If you own a midcentury house and are not already a member, join us now!
- “Typically there is no insulation at all. My house has the same ceiling. I am going to be adding rigid foam on the outside”
- “The boards you see *are* the roof structure, you can’t take them down. A new roof, with rigid insulation under it, is what mine will be getting.“
- “You will have quite a challenge. The thickness of your roof will change whatever you do, which means that you will have to replace the skylight as well.“
- “We have that ceiling and the only insulation is the foam board between the roof deck and the tongue and groove. The only way to add insulation would be to add another layer of foam board and then reroof.”
- “That is typically your roof deck… so no insulation unless you are putting on a new roof.. we have the same design. We put on a rubber roof with 4” insulation foam.”
- “It would be a travesty to lose the T&G ceilings, so don’t attempt to insulate from within. Wait until it’s time for a new roof, and find a contractor willing to put a seamless layer of rigid foam over top (have to rebuild skylight curbs as well to accommodate) and then roof over that.”
- “I say seamless because having rafters creating thermal bridges between interior and exterior kills effective r-value. It is possible however to do rafters and spray foam in a thermally broken manner, just more expensive than slapping a layer of rigid foam over everything.”
- “We did I think 3” foam layer, torch down and reflective layer on top. We needed new roofing for solar installation. House does get chilly at night and warm during the day but nothing crazy as we are in California. You probably need more insulation in Canada, but I wouldn’t touch the tongue & groove unless pieces really need to be replaced. However, I do have a neighbor that was able to do insulation over the interior ceilings. They then had T&G laid over the original T&G/insulation and added recessed lights. A lot of extra work/money if you ask me.”
- “Typically, the placement of insulation on this type of roof structure is limited to the upper side of the T&G. If you want more R-Value, it would be best to remove the shingles, place new or additional rigid insulation and re-shingle to meet code”.
- “You have to go from on top through the roof. Lived in an Eichler for many years and the TG is basically the roof, any “insulation” goes above it under the roof material.”
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