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Tyvek House Wrap Installation

Bob meets with building consultant Steven Easley to learn about Tyvek: what it is, how it works and how to install it.

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Tyvek House Wrap Installation Now Playing

Tyvek House Wrap Installation

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Clip Transcript For:

Tyvek House Wrap Installation

computer-generated transcript - may not be 100% accurate

" -Kevin and I are being joined by Steve Easley, who is a construction consultant and we're gonna talk about the reason why it makes a lot of sense to wrap up a house with house wrap and Steve what is this stuff?"

" -Well, it may look like this ordinary sheet of plastic, but it's actually a very fine polyethylene fiber that are bonded under a heating pressure to make a weather-resistant barrier for your house."

" -Okay, I've always called it olefin. It is very important to keep it plumped. There you go."

" -Absolutely."

" -And the term olefin basically means that as one polyester?"

" -It's a polyethylene fiber actually."

" -Polyethylene?"

" -Actually smaller than a human hair."

" -And the way it works, well, tell me how it works."

" -Well, the concept is, is that, you know a lot of builders will build homes and not put any type of weather-resistant barrier underneath the cladding and all cladding systems leak of course."

" -It's a cedar clapboard like we'll have here or"

" -Stucco stones."

" -Stucco, any kind of cladding system or skin is going to allow a certain amount of weather to get in."

" -Absolutely, and what this does, if water does get behind, and it always does, behind the cladding, it drains on without being sucked into to sheathing or it can cause wood to rot or mold or mildew, it cause a lot of problems. And of course, another great feature is that it's a great air filtration barrier."

" -Yeah."

" -The average home has about, you know, over 2000 feet of cracks and gaps."

" -Is that right?"

" -That's right."

" -2000 linear feet of cracks and gaps in the average homes, so that when you put the house wrap on it, you're preventing that much air infiltration, right?"

" -That's right."

" -What about keeping or trapping the moisture in the house? Don't you have to worry about that?"

" -Well, that's really the neat thing about this product. It's really an engineered product that allows you to have these layers of fibers. They are made in such a manner that moisture vapor droplets can get out"

" -Uh huh."

" -But water can't get in."

" -Okay."

" -So it's kind of like a GORE-TEX."

" -So, if you have too much humidity in the house, it can work its way out?"

" -Absolutely."

" -But if you got a blow on the outside, it won't work its way in."

" -Well, in the average family, puts out about 70 pints of moisture a day, so that moisture builds up inside the home and if it gets into your wall system, it can cause lots of problems."

" -Okay, now gonna put another layer of up at the top."

" -Yeah."

" -Okay, it's good and tight."

" -Now, cutting the opening in the window, we use to just make an x and pulled it back, but you're making a different kind of a shape there aren't you?"

" -That's right. This here is a much more efficient way to really install the product, because it allows you, if you let have your stapler there."

" -Give me the knife back."

" -We're short on tools here today."

" -It allows you to take this end and really hold it in. In that way, you never trap water at the head."

" -It gets a little bit like gift wrapping, which is not one"

" -It is."

" -One of my ports, but it is, what do you do up here?"

" -We're just putting this last set on the ground."

" -Well, I am actually gonna to cut that again."

" -But tell me one last thing, what about tape, don't you have to use tape with all of these?"

" -That's right, actually, there is a special tieback tape and it's important that, of course, you always put the tieback on so that the top layer always shingles over the first."

" -Right."

" -And then wrap this with the tieback tape."

" -Alright, so that's the place were the tape goes."

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