Plastic furring strips in vertical rainscreen
steveodom
| Posted in General Questions on
Hi, long time reader, first time poster.
My house will have a vertical, open-joint rainscreen. Rather than doing the two layers of furring strips to provide the ventilation, I’m considering using the plastic, ventilated, furring strips from, say, [Quarrix](https://www.roofingdirect.com/shop/quarrix-furring-strips).
I received a sample from them. The strips look like hardier coroplast sign material.
I’m curious of experiences here with working with the material, things to watch out for, suitability, comments or reactions of the siding crew installing them, etc.
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This stuff looks like the coravent material that many like to use for rainscreen vents. I haven’t ever used the particular material at that link, but it looks like it would work the same as coravent so you might look for application info for coravent to get ideas.
Bill
I recently used the coravent material which looks very similar. I used their Sturdi-Strips for the vertical rainscreen which is 3/8" thick:
https://www.cor-a-vent.com/sturdi-strips.cfm
I also used the SV3 vents at top and bottom for bug-proof ventilation:
https://www.cor-a-vent.com/siding-vent-sv-3.cfm
The company was easy to work with and shipped to me directly.
I installed it myself and had no problems, even as a first-time builder.
stevodom,
Not to be pedantic, but what you are proposing is an open-j0int cladding. It will have very few of the attributes of a rain-screen, and will rely on the WRB behind to do all the heavy lifting usually reserved for the cladding layer.
Haha. Thanks for that Malcolm. I have been unclear on the proper description. Now I know.
Great to hear your experience with the Coravent product, Nic.
Nic Smith, does the Coravent sturdi-strip have ventilation holes where if you installed the sturdi-strip horizontal to attach vertical cladding if would allow for airflow to move up the wall? It didn't look like it had holes in the right orientation for a vertical cladding application.
You have to be careful with what you put behind open cladding. Everything needs to be rated for UV exposure, the furring strip in question is not.
You can use metal furring, pressure treated wood, ripped composite deck boards or PVC trim.
Also make sure your WRB is also rated (ie RevealShield ), very few are.
AMVIC makes ENVIROSTRAP with either plastic or wood rainsceen on 2" x4' x8' EPS available from Toronto via PACIFIC ICF , Bill
Open-joint cladding, huh. I had to watch a Risinger video to see what that meant, as I've never noticed it in my area. Very... architectural.
He does describe a UV-stable rainscreen housewrap from Dorken to go with it. He seems to be mounting them on a standoff made from a custom-fabricated piece of flashing, and presumably just being very careful with how deep the screws go to avoid bowing the boards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWrF3tEImEY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pieoEpQrUj8
Ben Obdyke's got a system for it as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhT6WIgpB3Y
With how there are two rows of screws fully supporting each board from from the sunlight-exposed edge, I imagine even something with a minimal footprint, like a 1/4" EPDM rubber washer beneath each screw, would perform the function demanded?