Insulated a steel roof?

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bryce

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I'm buying this 1947 house from a guy who did a bunch of strange things.
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I'm not entirely sure put he may have used polystyrene foam.
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The other thing is there is no vent in the roof, someone told me it didn't need it for this building.
I guess i won't know what's in there unless i open it up. I guess it should have a vapour barrier. There is no heat this attic bedroom either.
Since we are the topic i'm wondering what to do about the heat in this house. The force air furnace definitely need to be replaced in the basement. The forced air heat the main floor only. I was thinking of instead putting a gas fireplace on the left side of the house under this attic bedroom. I wonder if a gas fireplace could adequately heat this size house? Perhaps a heat pump or electric baseboard heaters on the second floor? I was reading that heat pumps are cheap and efficient then other people told me they are expensive to run.:confused:
I guess the insurance want the forced air because of the issue of freezing pipes in the basement.
Also the gas bill was 1800 cnd last year to run this 1983 furance, i guess that indicated no insulation?
I was thinking to take the board off where the evesdraught is seem if can blow insulation up there. This polysterne probably isn't so good from what i understand, looks like he completely finished this room.
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This polysterene is pretty dangerous if burned, but i guess the spray foam is much different?
 
Hire a good home inspector who knows how to use his thermal-imaging camera. He will show you where insulation is functional or not, without destroying anything. And will probably only charge for an hour or two of his time.
 
That's a good idea maybe i can rent one.
I think he put regular insulation in those places.
I'm thinking now that i need foam sprayed in. Can that just be sprayed in over old insulation?
I was reading about ice damns and i think that must be the case when you look at the roof? Notice the broken eves. That entrance way is completely rot inside. What the inspector said is that the water is just running in through the eves, so that is what causing it. Can you advise me a step by step fix for the entrance?
I figure gut out all the old rot and maybe check out the bottom of the roof while i'm at it. Maybe insulation could be spraying in at that time, from underneath?
So much water was run in to the entrance that the concrete steps and porch has separated and sunk down a couple of inches. So patch that up should be easy with some concrete.
But how to fix the leak and ice problem? I was thinking last night that i should extend the roof with a piece of metal, maybe 3'-4' wide, that way the rain would fall off the house 3' a way plus pass the joint connecting to the house and the entrance way. What do you think?

What i gather about ice dam problems is it is because of lack of insulation, so i was going to insult the ceiling on the first floor. What i understand is i should use regular bat insulation for this.
The basement too, you can advise me on.
I understand that the insulation should be sprayed underneath the flooring (from the basement.) The basement is fairly dry. I heard also that the insulation can be sprayed on the basement walls, Is that right?
Well thank in advance for you answers.
 
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Ice dam is caused when heat leaking from the top of the outside wall, melts the snow just above the wall and the water refreezes a few inches down the roof creating a dam. So when more water melts it has nowhere to go so it will back up into the shingles and into the attic. The fix is to have air flow from soffet vents to the ridge. As heat is released from the wall it creates a draft and flows up and out keeping that portion of the roof cool.
 
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