I want a house that has got over all its troubles; I don’t want to spend the rest of my life bringing up a young and inexperienced house.
-Jerome K. Jerome, writer and humorist, 1859 – 1927
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There’s something special about a cabin in the woods, and when that cabin makes you feel terrific while you’re inside, it’s a big part of the attraction. One of the things that makes old-time cabins so inviting is the way the rafters and roof boards remain visible inside. It’s a beautiful feature, but you never see it in typical modern homes. That’s because roof structures usually include insulation batts, vapour barrier and drywall that hides all the wood.
As practical and sensible as this approach is in the city, it doesn’t look right as part of lakeside cabins, rural sleeping bunkies and simple forest cabins like this one. To do these places justice, you need a completely different approach that lets the roof boards show through, and the best way to make this happen is by adding insulation on top of the roof structure, not within it. This also happens to be highly resistant to mouse and bat infestation, too.
In This Section...
Insulating From the Top
ROOF INSULATION & GOOD LOOKS
My suggested approach to roof insulation is unusual, but I figure it’s worth the eccentricity because roof insulation is the precise place where most cabin designs fall flat.