Air sealing a building in the winter.
nilst
| Posted in General Questions on
I have yet to put on the roof of the house I am building and we have had several snowfalls. Tomorrow is december 1. Are there any air sealing products that stick in the cold. The sheathing is aspenite as zip system sheathing is not available in Quebec just north of Vermont
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Replies
You could still use zip tape, it has good adherence in cold.
Zip tape does seem to work in the cold. Was just using some myself but I'm in Massachusetts. I had a heck of a time with Grace ice and water shield at the current temperatures. Ended up having to use a heat gun to get it to stick it all.
Your best bet might be to rent some propane heaters and heat the place enough that the things you need to seal will be warm enough for regular sealants to work. Many sealants start having issues when you get below 50F or so, and it's even worse if you are trying to do work down below freezing.
Some propane companies can also rent heaters and hoses for things like temporary jobsite heating. I suggest you look into that. An additional benefit here is that the crews on the jobsite are more productive in temperatures above freezing too :-)
Bill
Unfortunately neither Zip tape nor Zip sheathing are available locally. The 'crew` (a young couple in their seventies) definitely appreciates the comfort of a warm jobsite but I think we'll wait for the sun to provide it.