Strongest housewraps
Can anyone name some options for strong, durable housewraps?
475 Building Supply has the Solitex Mento Plus which appears to be very robust. It is a 4 ply membrane. However @ close to $640 + Freight for a 9′ x 164′ roll, I am hoping to find something a little less spendy.
Thank you. -Mike
Note: I am in 4a and building my house: barndominium and trying to figure out the air sealing detail.
GBA Detail Library
A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part
Replies
Mike,
Of the house-wraps that are fastened by staples or cap-nails, (not the self-adhesive ones) I find Tyvek Commercial very robust. It's very hard to tear and easy to pull tight. It does have about half the permeability of regular Tyvek though, if that is important to you.
Mike, Mento Plus is super tough stuff. Are you applying it over rigid sheathing? If so, you can probably use Mento 1000 or one of their other membranes. Or look at Siga Majvest, which is also tough. Rothoblaas is new to the US but they have a variety of membranes. Dorken also has options.
Thank you gents. I actually had emailed the tyvek rep to see if he had a recommendation for a sturdy housewrap. He mentioned tyvek commercial as their best option.
Michael Maines,
I am hoping to make an acceptable assembly without sheathing if possible???
The upstate NY post frame net zero house did it's air sealing with Mento Plus house wrap on the exterior side and Intello Plus on the interior wall.
My thinking is I can do inside to outside- drywall, interior horizontal girts, certainteed membraine, 2x 2" and 1x 1.5" polyiso until horizontal ext girts. With space between those exterior girts filled with 1.5" of polyiso. Then an exterior housewrap (commercial tyvek?) and then the metal for siding.... or I may put in a layer of vertical 1x and then horizontal 1x to create a rain screen.
For ceiling and roof assembly I can go drywall, Certainteed Membraine, 2x ceiling joists between trusses, 7" polyiso (2ea 2" and 2ea 1.5" layers) on ceiling joists. Purlins, metal roof.
Pole barns here are notorious for raining on items underneath if no insulation is under the roof metal because of the cold metal surface and humid air. Most folks use the bubble foil insulation. Not sure if moisture will condense and rain down with the ceiling insulation. If yes, then I will need to deal with this also.
I was supposed to come into a good chunk of money on 1 April; but, things developed in the world and it was "postponed"; so, I am leaning forward with a much tighter budget than my very tight budget of a few months ago 😊. I will not take on any debt. I say this to illustrate that a $1000 is a lot of money too me right now. If it is a must to avoid a nightmare, then it is going to be squeezed out of my wallet; but, if it can be avoided by an additional 20 hours of my sweat in building details, I will sweat.
I have collected so many materials in the last two years:
All windows – nice swing out wood casements
Plenty of metal for roof and siding
Trusses – I had them evaluated by a structural engineer
312 sheets 1.5" polyiso
252 sheets 2" polyiso
Kitchen cabinets
Minisplit heat pump – 38 seer Gree I am using in my camper now.
Electrical rough-in wiring and materials 60% collected
Elec and plumb fixtures
With my skidsteer, grapple, bucket and backhoe attachment I have already cleared the land, Installed a septic, driveway, a building pad, and temp power is in. I had never done a septic, so it went much slower than a pro, but it is all done. I am going to weld up a simple boom pole for my forklift attachment to lift trusses into position.
The ONLY contractor I will hire is someone to handle the slab pour day once I have it all formed and ready to go.
I gave all these details to make it undertood that I am REALLY trying to stretch pennies. If I am stupid to build this without sheathing, sheathing will be purchased installed and air sealed. If I have to buy sheathing, I will likely do Joe Lstebriks perfect wall concept and place all the insulation outside the sheathing.
Thank you.
-Mike
I have had Commercial Tyvek up for about 8 months now while I slowly side the house. There is not even a sign of wear and not a hole or tear in it. Very tough stuff.
I just discovered that Typar is apparently 5x more tear resistant than regular tyvek. Not sure about commercial tyvek. I will do some reading about it as I have only used tyvek, and before I knew better those cheap tarp style housewraps.
The typay can be had for a $100 for 9x100, so the price sounds good.
Regular Tyvek tears if you look at it the wrong way.
Malcolm, if the plywood seams were already taped. Would you go with Majvest or CommericalWrap?
Jay,
Having never used Majvest it's probably not fair for me to compare them. I don'y know of any downsides to using the Commercial wrap. One of the big advantages is it is readily available in big box stores and lumberyards.