Arch 115

18 January 2011

Professor Brayton

Justin Reimink

Tyvek Presentation

Pete DeJong came to present to our class on Friday January fourteen. Mr. Dejong’s
presentation revolved around house wrap and other Tyvek products. I personally found it to be a
very enlightening experience as a student. Throughout the presentation many different topics
were covered, the least of these being Characteristics and categories of building wraps, the
purpose and function of house wrap, a comparison of different house wraps, and the importance
of house wraps.

To start the presentation Mr. DeJong illustrated why it is important for architects and
homeowners to use high quality house wraps when they are constructing, designing, or
renovating their houses. As the building code now requires some sort of house wrap on a
building it is absolutely worthwhile to look into the different qualities of house wrap. One
important thing that house wrap does is to act a secondary water barrier. This means that when
the exterior claddings of a house leak the house wrap repels some or all of the water from getting
to the house through the breach. House wraps are important in stopping the growth of mold as
well. For example if you had a material that just trapped water moisture in your house mold
would eventually start to grow. But because house wraps are engineered to let water vapor out
they play an important role in stopping mold. Lastly and very importantly building wraps resist
air infiltration. In fact, resisting air infiltration is the main point of the product.

There are a few specific characteristics that one should look for in a good building wrap.
A good building wrap will have: a high level of air resistance, a high level of water resistance, a
moderate to high vapor permeability, and it must be durable. A high level of air resistance is
important because the whole point of a house wrap is to increase the energy of efficiency of your
house by containing more of the air in your house, as opposed to it being cold and drafty. A high
level of water resistance is important because all exterior claddings leak. A moderate to high
vapor permeability helps prevent the growth of mold because not enough moisture gets trapped
in your buildings frame. Durability is essential because the product needs to be able to handle the
rough atmosphere that is a job site. Durability also makes the installation phase much easier,
even if you end up juggling subcontractors.

There are a few different categories of house wrap, mainly asphalt impregnated papers
and felt, coated house wraps, and spun bonded Tyvek. Asphalt impregnated paper or felt is by
far the cheapest of these categories. It does not even pass as an air barrier, absorbs leaked water,
is not very permeable, and it tears very easily. It is altogether an inferior product. However it is a
very cheap solution. Coated wraps on the other hand are more efficient at resisting air
infiltration. The drawbacks to coated wraps are numerous though. Coated wraps are very delicate
and the actual base material does not resist water or air. Coated wraps are also very delicate and
have a low permeability. Spun bonded Tyvek offers by far the best product. The product offers a
high air resistance, a high bulk water holdout, a high perm rating, and excellent durability. This
is why an architect might consider using Tyvek. However cost may be an issue depending on the
project.

Mr. DeJong also conveyed other important information onto us students. For example we
learned why we have building codes. We have building codes as a bare minimum of
requirements for constructing structures so that said houses don’t experience unsafe problems.
The building codes are proposed and enacted reactively, which means that as disasters occur the
building code changes to prevent such events from occurring again. The insurance companies
have a large say in the building codes because if something goes wrong with the house they want
to have to payout as little as possible and thus they want to minimize the extent of the damage.
Mr. DeJong also taught us what the necessary conditions for mold growth are. Mold requires a
temperature of 34F to 104F, +70% humidity, a food source such as the wood in your house, and
air to provide oxygen for the mold to grow. Three of those four requirements are necessary for
human survival, which is why only humidity is directly targeted to stop mold growth, and why
Tyvek home products may not be such a bad idea.

After Mr. DeJong left I felt I had much more intelligible understanding of house wrap as
well as mold. I found the whole presentation decently enjoyable and he did an excellent job of
keeping the presentation interesting. I would gladly sit through another of Mr. DeJong’s
presentations. To summarize I learned about the characteristics, purpose, applications, and
necessities of building wraps, as well as many other things.