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i am building my own house this year and am thinking about weathering in the house by wraping the house with tyvek, this would seal the airgaps and keep the water out. since i’m doing most of the build myself, things might not progress as quick as normal, so weathering in the walls will be important. after i get the roof structure and covering in place, i can go back to the walls and clap and seal them. would there be problem if i then put felt over the tyvek, using the felt to flash the openings properly.
appreciate any help!
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Check duponts site I believe tyvek is not recommended to be exposed for more then 120 days.
*A house near me (Ann Arbor, MI) is being hand-built by owner and he's taking a few years to get all the bricks up (brick over stick frame construction).What he did was this:Builder's feltfurring strips 16"oc (vertical)drain holes at the bottom of the bricks to let the rain out.Portions of this structure have been exposed like this for several years, and while I can not say for sure that its perfect it does seem to be working for him (or her). Anyway, looks ok from the highway (ok, so it could be failing miserably for all I know).Anyway, my point is if the concern with felt exposed to the weather is usually wrinkling, then I think the vertical furring strips would prevent those wrinkles from getting too big. Does anyone know the stability of Tyvec vs. Felt under UV exposure (sunlight) and which one should live longer like that?I bet there's something in the archives here on that point but don't remember.
*I'm not sure which one holds up to UV better, but felt is cheap enough to replace if need be.Andy
*in ireland (where i live), felt is the same price, but easier to put up.
What is your final siding going to be? Fiber cement, Vinyl, wood, stucco, or brick? Are you going to install a rain screen? How long after wrapping the house will it take to get the siding on? If it were up for a long time, I would consider scrapping it and installing fresh material when I finally got to the siding.
If it were me, I would use a short roll of ice shield over all the plywood joint, flashing, add standard iceshield where appropriate, 30 lls felt weather barrier, rainscreen, then fiber cement. I never actually built with a rain screen, but I like the concept. I've taken 1x6 frieze boards off a 100 year old house that were shimmed 1/2" off the sheathing and they were still in good shape.
I would also consider a layer of 1.5 inch polystyrene over the plywood, and would seal the edges with expandable foam between the boards as I install them. Again, never used this method, but it would help preven thermal bridging through the studs or other building material. I would only be concerned about trapping water vapor in the cavity with the polystyrene, but that topic could take up a whole other post.
Not a big fan of the synthetic weather barriers. I've heard there has been problems with them reacting with certain siding materials in wood and cement, which causes them to fail prematurely. Also the whole UV exposure deal. They certainly do not have the track record of 30 lbs felt (I thinks 15 lbs is too thin, not as durable, and gets torn by my tack hammer too easily).
Good luck on your new house!
Leave it exposed
My comment is not a recommendation, but actually fishing for comments. If you have a roof on with overhangs, would not teh walls be shelthered enough to be just fine for a year or so. Sure, through one winter?