I’ve done a search on this and found little. I have a 1920 Dutch Colonial. Recently I replaced an old K&T circuit by pulling a trunk line to the attic and making all my drops from there. In the process I have meticulously sealed all the 2nd floor ceiling penetrations etc. While working up there I’ve noticed that the insulation that is present has been blown/stuffed down into the sections of roof/wall that a gambrel roof is. I don’t know how you refer to this section. Apparently this means there is no ventilation track from the soffits up into the attic. There is no ridge vent. There are two louvered openings at both gable ends. I’ve never seemed to have any problems with ice damming. I guess the if it ain’t broke don’t fix it maxim should prevail here. The question is with a gambrel roof are the steep vertical roof/wall sections treated as a wall when it comes to insulating or should there be a continuous vent channel from soffit up? If I blow in more cellulose after sealing all the penetrations into the attic am I maybe changing the dynamics such that a problem that I don’t have now will crop up? Should I blow cellulose all the way under the eaves and not worry about soffit ventilation?
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I have a similar situation with my gambrel-roofed house. It was built in the late 60's when lip-service was paid to insulation. After I removed the drywall on the outside wall of a bathroom that I'm working on, I saw that the lower part of the "roof" was actually the outer wall. There was also a definite draft running along the entire length of the roof. I should point out that the lower roof constitutes the entire wall of the top floor - there is no knee wall part.
However, there's no connection between this space and the actual attic cavity. This leads me to believe that it can be classed as a wall and can be insulated as such. I have thought about using some closed-cell insulation (the "firm" pink kind) up against the wall but there is the possibility of leakage and I don't care for the idea of increasing the chances of allowing the wood in the outer wall to rot. My thought is that I should fill up most of the space with fiberglass of some some, be it blown-in or batt. Hence I would not worry about the soffit.
Of course, somebosy may know better...
The main problem that I've had in recent winters is that of ice damming and leakage on the lower roof. The fact that there's an essentially empty space which (I believe) is heated by my conditioned space, just contributes to this.