Air barrier / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

...barriers are often intended to act as an air barrier as well, but the most common installation techniques (staples, nails and hastily installed tape) mean it is a rare case when they actually do a good job at air sealing. Manufacturers will rightly claim their products are a suitable choice for an air barrier, and they...

Air tightness in houses - all about balancing air pressure in the home We go on incessantly here about the importance of air barriers in home construction to reduce air leakage, but no matter how hard you worked to make a house airtight, if the pressure isn't balanced you will be sucking air in or forcing it out and, d...

...air is directed to a centralized core for a heat exchange before being exhausted from the house. Lunos is a decentralized system with a series of self-contained units, each with their own ceramic heat exchange core. They work in pairs blowing in opposite directions to maintain air pressure, and reversing directions eve...

...air barrier from the assault it would normally receive from wiring and other penetrations when we rely on an interior polyethylene as an air and vapor barrier. See our pages on vapor and air movement and the difference between air and vapor barriers to get a better idea of how this works, and why it makes so much sense...

...barrier is to prevent vapor diffusion (walls absorbing humidity from the air), and the job of an air barrier is to stop air leakage through individual holes. A wall system should have one vapor barrier, but it can have many air barriers. A vapor barrier can act as a very effective air barrier, but an air barrier does n...

...air out of your home and the hot air in can save a fortune in electricity costs for running aircon. The best bit? This tip is for free!  Caulking: Air leaks account for an enormous amount of heat loss in a home, and can lead to condensation and mold in walls in cold climates. In a really leaky house, a tube of caulking...

...air and vapor permeance. By moving the sheathing to the inside, you are simply letting it live up to its full potential as an air barrier and vapor barrier, and eliminating the need to install a separate product to do that job. One of the benefits of OSB as an air barrier is that it is solid. A polyethylene or foil air...

...air leakage than is carried by vapor diffusion. That makes air barriers 100 times more important than vapour barriers, so why is no one talking about them? We don't talk about air barriers because we are too busy talking about vapor barriers. An air barrier is not something you walk into a building supply store and buy...

...air barriers and vapor barriers The job of a vapor barrier is to prevent vapor diffusion, and the job of an air barrier is to stop air leakage through differences in air pressure. A wall system should have one vapor barrier, but can have many air barriers. A vapor barrier can act as a very effective air barrier, but an...