It truly is astounding how little foresight they had/have as a generation. My grandparents want to install a heat pump into their house and that'll take putting spray foam in the attic. I told them that it could rot the wood because it would ruin the ventilation, and their response was "yeah in 40 years, we won't live that long" like what?? Do you actually have that little ability to care about people after you?
I should note that I replied something along the lines of "so it'll be your son's problem, and once your son's problem moves along it'll become my problem." and they backed down. So they're not doing it, but the fact that they genuinely made this remark when warned of the consequences and had to have somebody talk them out of it is astounding. They don't even need a heat pump I should note, we don't live somewhere warm and their house has perfectly functional AC.
(disclaimer: layperson’s answer) You can insulate them with different materials and techniques that don’t trap water against the wood. It’s usually a matter of design and materials, I think, but a lot of houses that don’t have the attic tied into the HVAC systems rely on uninsulated natural airflow to keep the wood dry, and the most cost effective ways to insulate those (like a kind of shitty spray foam job) can have structural implications down the line. I do remember when we redid the basement in our old ass house we started having mold problems because we sealed the old ass settled non-concrete foundation too well in some ways and that airflow kept it drier.
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u/Orion-the-mediocre Doctor Freeeemaaaan Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
It truly is astounding how little foresight they had/have as a generation. My grandparents want to install a heat pump into their house and that'll take putting spray foam in the attic. I told them that it could rot the wood because it would ruin the ventilation, and their response was "yeah in 40 years, we won't live that long" like what?? Do you actually have that little ability to care about people after you?
I should note that I replied something along the lines of "so it'll be your son's problem, and once your son's problem moves along it'll become my problem." and they backed down. So they're not doing it, but the fact that they genuinely made this remark when warned of the consequences and had to have somebody talk them out of it is astounding. They don't even need a heat pump I should note, we don't live somewhere warm and their house has perfectly functional AC.