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
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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