There’s no trick to making buildings air tight; pick the least penetrated sheet good either on the inside or preferably the outside of the building and seal everything to it. It’s that simple folks! Check out the image below:
Portland Maine’s Jesse Thompson‘s got it figured out; put the air barrier on the OUTSIDE and seal everything to it! See the window bucks on the right; the pans are flashed! In the above, the insulation ideally will be placed tight against the air barrier. If you think this house won’t look groovy, you’re wrong, check out the rendering below. Canadian carpenters; take note.
I hope the house above will have overhangs added for protection of windows, doors and walls from the elements. Admittedly adding framing lookouts in situ is tougher than to build rake walls on the ground, but either way, this house has made air sealing very simple. The electricians and plumbers can drill away inside and it won’t affect the air barrier.
The taping festival goes on in Ontario and it’s 2016. We know better, stop with the 6mil poly masquerading as an air barrier. Let the poly be what it’s supposed to be; a vapour barrier only! Then put your air sealing efforts outside where you won’t have to air-seal a million holes around framing, wires and plumbing penetrations. Besides, the OBC says if the above poly is the AB, the seams need to be clamped.
The other great advantage of sticking the air barrier, hopefully with shingle-style lapped seams, to the sheathing is that no air can travel under the fabric air barrier and its substrate. Tack on the vertical furring strips for the drainage layer and it makes for a durable air barrier. So if you’re considering making your indoor 6 mil the air tight layer, give us a call, we’ll show you why your building won’t perform optimally.
For the record, the blue house above will look like this when completed:
If you were thinking the house wrapped in blue Henry VP100 was going to look square, think again; this rendering is what Kaplan Thompson Architects have in mind for their build. Fresh, contemporary and very appealing.