'attic' insulation

[mrcaptainbob]

Our home is an 1860 two story brick with a 35 yr old addition. For the most part it's pretty well insualted. The problem We're having is dang (darn) ice-daming. The roof line wa built low enough so as to cause an 'intrusion' on the side walls of the ceiling. Two foot of ceiling is at the same angle as the roof. The roof boards and shingles are on the top side of the 2x4's and the room ceiling is directly on the underside. The rest of the attic is well insualted except for this two foot portion along the eves. There's a tremendous heat loss at that point and is the cause of that ice daming. My question: How the heck can that be insulated? With what? I plan to use the 1" styrafoam spacers set against the roof boards, but that leaves a bit over 2 inches for insulation. What 'stuff' can I use? R49 is the recommended value for this part of Michigan. Easy to do where there's a two foot space! What high-tech, good ideas are out there to help this out. I also plan to install the heat wires on the that part of the shingles as well as in the gutters and downspouts.
Last winter gave us roof ice over a foot thick at the eves.

[kactuskid]

Well, you're in a tuff spot, insulation and ventillation are the normal fix's for ice damming, but in your situation you're kinda stuck. You can try to prevent air movement comming up from beneath by painting the ceiling and wall areas below with a vapor retarding paint such as BIN, it's a primer that can be top coated with any latex paint, but it provides some protection for you. Here's a link about it. http://www.passonnopaints.com/Pages/...SealersBin.cfm

Also buy some calcium chloride pellets, put them in a nylon and set it up on your roof and gutter to try to melt the ice if you get the damming again. It's safe to siding and plants way more than rock salt is. Here's an article that'll explain some details for you. Hope this helps.

http://www.detnews.com/2004/homeimprovement/0402/10/e18-56678.htm

[mrcaptainbob]

Thanks for that info, Kaktus. It looks like the only thing left is heat cabling. I'll still put in that styrafoam 1" airtunnel and follow through with insulating between it and the ceiling. I guess anything is better than nothing.