Buying Guide

1. Determine Your Purpose
Determine your purpose for installing the housewrap. Do you want
a water resistive barrier or both a water resistive barrier and an air
barrier?
The initial purpose of housewraps is to help protect the home
from water intrusion from water getting past the exterior siding or
cladding. A good quality housewrap will also decrease the amount
of air bypassing the sheathing and bringing moisture filled air into
the home creating potential humidity or condensation issues.
Energy efficiency is also impacted by the amount of cooled or
heated air escaping to the outside.
2. Some housewraps also qualify as air barrier materials
and, when properly installed, can qualify as an air barrier.
A functioning air barrier will minimize any air flow sneaking
its way into or out of the house for greater moisture
protection and energy efficiency.
a. If you live in the blue states, you are required to have a
continuous air barrier in order to satisfy the IECC-Residential
(International Energy Conservation Code) code requirement (see
Figure 1).
b. The best and easiest way to create a continuous air barrier on a
home is to appropriately install a housewrap that is classified as an
air barrier material such as Everbilt Non-woven or Tyvek(registered)
Non-woven (see Table 1).
3. Materials Quantities Estimated
Average house requires 2-3 rolls of 9’ x 150’ wrap
Average house requires 3-4 rolls of seam tape
October 2020
BUYERS GUIDE
Non-Woven Housewrap
Table 1
Figure 1
Level of
Water
Penetration
Resistance
Vapor Permeance
(Ease of Moisture
Vapor to pass
through)
Tear
Strength
UV
Stability
Everbilt
®
Woven Low Low High 6 months
Everbilt
®
Non-woven High Medium Medium 6 months
Tyvek
®
Non-woven Medium High Low 4 months
INSTL-HPW-2010
MADE IN
THE USA