Let me start by saying we think we know what is causing our problem, we just don't know to solve it.

Our problem is condensation in the attic.

Our home in Northeast Pennsylvania was built between 1988 and 1990. The house is a 50’ x 35’ raised ranch on a moderate slope with a full walkout basement overlooking a small mountain lake. The house has cathedral ceilings throughout most of the home with a loft over the kitchen and bath areas. In the loft there are two small storage attics, one to the left and one to the right. The roof is of standard roof shingles and has a ridge vent along the entire peak and continuous soffit vents.

We now discover that during construction our builder stuffed too much insulation between the rafters on top of the Styrofoam vent channels literally collapsing the vent channels, greatly reducing proper roof venting. Being a weekend home, the attic condensation problem was never noticed since there was not enough moisture generated during those short stays to be a problem. Now that we have moved in full time and have a humidifier running in the winter, the condensation is a real real big problem with water dripping all over the place. If we had a normal roof we could go into the attic and correct the problem from there but most of the house has cathedral ceilings. The small attic areas off the loft are where we can see and touch the rafters and is where the problem was first noticed. Now there is water running down the sidewalls where we have the cathedral ceiling. All bathrooms and clothes dryer are properly vented to the outside. Recognizing part of the problem is from excessive moisture, we stopped using the humidifier.

I have read and heard a lot about how to prevent this problem from the beginning but other than reducing the moisture level in the home, I have not found nor heard anything on how to correct the improper roof venting once it is discovered in an older home. One roofer stated we would have to rip off the roof shingles and roof sheathing, extend the rafters with 2 x 2’s, add new ventilation baffles then re-sheath and re-roof.

Wow that sounds expensive, is that the only way?

venting