Ceiling spray foam insulation in Didsbury is work on the boundary between the heated rooms and whatever sits above them, and in a town of older houses that boundary was never built to be airtight in the first place.
Ceilings built before anybody sealed one
A house from the early part of the last century has a lath and plaster or early board ceiling that was fitted to look right, not to stop air. Every fitting, chase and partition top is an opening, and nobody closed any of them because at the time there was no reason to. That is the honest starting position for most of the older stock in Didsbury, and it explains why these houses often feel draughty at head height even when there is plenty of insulation lying above the ceiling.
Where the room ends and the roof begins is not one line
In an old house that has been added to, the ceiling plane steps. There is a flat ceiling over the original rooms, a sloped one where a bedroom was pushed into the roof, a dropped one over a later kitchen, and a small flat again over a porch. Each step is a place where the insulation stops and starts, and the joints between them are where the losses concentrate. Working out where that plane actually runs is most of the survey work on a Didsbury house of this type, and it is why a quote given over the phone is worth very little.
Sloped and cathedral sections are the difficult part
Where a ceiling follows the roof line there is no attic above it to work in, the cavity is shallow, and there may be no ventilation path at all. That is the section where a sprayed application earns its place, because it is applied to the underside of the deck as insulation and air seal together and does not need a vented space above it to work. It is also the section most likely to be showing staining, and that gets diagnosed before anything is covered up.
Which part to do if only one part gets done
The flat ceiling over the main rooms is the largest area and the cheapest to treat, and it is where an owner working through this a piece at a time should start. The sloped sections cost more per square metre and usually come second. Nobody in this town needs to be told to do the whole house at once, and the work does not have to be done that way to be done properly.
Ceiling Spray Foam Insulation Didsbury: Common Questions
Why does the ceiling feel draughty with insulation above it? That is air movement through the ceiling, not a lack of depth above it.
What about the sloped part of the upstairs? No attic above it and a shallow cavity. That is the section a sprayed application suits.
Does it all have to be done at once? No. The flat ceiling over the main rooms is the sensible first piece.
Size the assembly with the R-value calculator, then get a free Didsbury quote. More on Ceiling Spray Foam Insulation Alberta.