Attic spray foam insulation in Olds is sealing the ceiling plane first and adding depth second. There is a reason that order matters more in a house let by the room than in the same house with a family in it, and it is about how much moisture is being produced inside.
Five people in a house built for a family of four
A detached house let by the room holds more people than the plan assumed, and each of them showers, cooks, dries clothes and breathes. That is a materially larger moisture load than the building was designed around, and all of it rises. In an Olds rental with an unsealed ceiling plane, that moisture goes straight up into the attic, meets the cold underside of the roof deck and condenses there, night after night through the winter.
Frost in the attic is the warning, not the leak
The tell is not a stain, it is frost. It builds up through the cold months because nothing clears it, and then a mild spell arrives and it all releases at once. It comes through the ceiling looking exactly like a roof leak, on a roof that is perfectly sound. Anybody who gets water through a ceiling in spring on a dry day should look in the attic before they call a roofer.
Sealing first, because depth cannot stop moving air
Insulation depth slows heat conducting through a material. It does nothing about warm wet air travelling through the hatch, around light fittings, up a plumbing stack or through the top plate of an interior wall. On a house carrying this much moisture, those openings are the whole problem, and adding depth over them puts a thicker blanket above an open route. Close the plane and the depth already up there starts working.
The hatch, and the fact that nobody living there owns it
On most of these houses the largest single opening in the ceiling is the attic hatch, sitting on a trim frame with no seal and nothing on top of it. It is the cheapest item on any list. It is also nobody's job in a let house: the tenants will not touch it and the landlord has never been up there. Dealing with it is a small piece of work with an effect out of proportion to the cost, and on an Olds rental it is frequently the single item that changes how the upstairs feels without anybody moving out or losing a room for a day.
Attic Spray Foam Insulation Olds: Common Questions
The roof is fine, so why did water come through the ceiling in spring? That is almost certainly attic frost releasing rather than a leak. Look up there before calling a roofer.
Does the number of people in the house matter? A great deal. More occupants means more moisture, and it all ends up at the ceiling plane.
Should we just add insulation? Not first. Depth cannot stop air moving, and here the air is carrying the moisture.
Size the assembly with the R-value calculator, then get a free Olds quote. More on Attic Spray Foam Insulation Alberta.