Vent Insulate Flat Roof
Unvented assemblies work particularly well on complex roofs that would be difficult or impossible to vent properly or on roofs where it would be difficult to insulate properly if the roof were vented.
Vent insulate flat roof. At pitched roofs with the insulation between joists we know a back vented roof is a great way to keep the roof functioning well as stated in a prior 475 blogpost. Covering up the soffit vents with loose fill or batts which can happen if you stuff insulation along the eaves is a huge no no. To produce a hot roof rigid insulation is fitted outside above the weatherproofing. Any type of roof from tpo to epdm can be either hot or cold.
Cold roof a very bad idea. And while we can back vent a flat roof is it the most effective and safest approach. Cold roofs have insulation beneath the. It is preferred to have the bulk of the insulation between the.
It depends on where the insulation is installed. Vapor barriers a vapor barrier is a layer of protection between the insulation and the climate conditioned area. How much ventilation does a flat roof need. How to insulate a flat roof.
The rule of thumb for foil faced boards like thermapitch tp10 or kooltherm k7 in this scenario is that you can have no more insulation under the joists than you have between the joists. A cold roof or hot roof. The airflow from the soffits to the ridge vent keeps the roof cool and prevents ice dams and the material will block that flow. Insulation is placed in between the joists underneath the roof surface above.
This is then covered with a further weatherproofing layer. Cold roof systems are highly inadvisable as insulation from the inside will inevitably lead to the formation of condensation. Rigid foam and spray foam are two of them. Both these variants require different approaches to insulation which will be covered in this guide.
Cathedral roofs especially need a lot more insulation between the ceiling and the rafters because there usually isn t. Vent a foam insulated roof there used to be a time when the only insulation available was pink fiberglass. But what s true for a pitched roof is not necessarily true for a flat roof. All insulation materials require proper venting.
Today there are more options. For the same reason insulation shouldn t touch the roof s underside. Insulation material is placed on top of the roof rather than in between the ceiling and the decking. Roof vents on flat roofs need to be sufficiently sealed and positioned off the roof so water cannot seep in through them.
The answer depends on the type of roof you have.