Tyvek Fluid Applied Housewrap goes Residential

In early 2015 my company created a common sense application of Tyvek’s Fluid Applied,  that’s a perfect fit for residential construction. Our system, can achieve near Passivehouse air-tightness standards, without using any insulation. That’s right, the house  below scored  0.8 air changes per hour (ACH50), just a couple of hairs away from the 0.6 Passivehouse air-tightness threshold. In laymen terms, that’s super tight! So tight in fact, that I have never (knowingly) in my life, met a person that has built a house this tight. We’ve been building homes like this ever since. Enjoy the video!

Tyvek Fluid Applied WRB (housewrap) being applied over green fiberglass mat sheathing on the Seaholm Building in Austin, TX.

Fluid Applied WRB’s are increasingly covering the skins of large scale commercial buildings, but have yet to break into the residential market. The lag behind is likely due to higher prices (this is a premium product), lack of product knowledge among most residential builders and architects, and simply because it’s a newer technique in a fairly risk averse industry.

We did in fact receive Tyvek’s blessing to put their product on top of Huber’s Zip sheathing (a brilliant product in its own right), along with lots of other surfaces (like concrete). This ultra stretchy moisture-cured (Low VOC) modified polyether sticks to almost anything , and conveniently can even be applied in moist conditions such as light rain. Heck, I’ve actually witnessed this goop adhere and dry underwater, though wet application is neither practical nor approved.

Doug Cameron is a Healthy, High-Performance Builder & Remodeler with EcoSafe Spaces Design+Build in Austin, TX