Over the past 40 years, a growing awareness of the importance of sustainability, reducing energy utilisation, and creating good for you indoor spaces has prompted many changes in the building manufacture. To reach these goals, contractors must aim to select methods and materials that produce tight building envelopes that will stop air and moisture infiltration.

Ane method of achieving a tight building envelope involves continuous insulation (CI) across every structural member of the edifice, along with an awarding of an efficient vapor barrier sealed with a high-quality construction seaming tape.

Sealing the seams of the bulwark with a loftier-performing tape helps to ensure a continuous air barrier that reduces moisture intrusion and accumulation into the wall organisation. CI and a properly sealed vapor barrier provide crucial components of an energy-efficient, durable, and salubrious building.

How to Choose the Best Structure Record for Vapor Bulwark Seams

With and so many seam tapes on the marketplace, choosing the best one can overwhelm builders. Nonetheless, selecting the right tape makes a significant departure in free energy efficiency, durability, and indoor air quality (IAQ). Today's contractors tin cull between three types of tape: asphaltic, rubber (butyl), and acrylic.

When comparison structure seam tapes, contractors should consider the following factors:

1. Tape adhesion

In hot, common cold, and moisture environments, the tape should maintain adhesion over fourth dimension.

ii. Ease of application

Tapes with marked edges brand it easier to tear and quicker to apply, saving workers fourth dimension and frustration. In add-on, a flexible record hastens applications because information technology allows contractors to seal quickly around whatever penetrations or tight corners.

three. Immovability

Builders should select tape with first-class air- and moisture-resistance.

4. UV Resistance

Expert structure tape provides UV resistance.

5. Longevity

Wait for a durable seam tape with enough tensile strength to maintain its form and stay flat confronting the vapor barrier over the lifetime of the building project.

half-dozen. Avoid tapes that contain toxins

seven. The price of seaming tape

Contractors must too consider the cost of the dissimilar types and brands of record, which can vary tremendously. However, for the protection of the building envelope, the tape must provide long-term adhesion, ease of application, depression-permeability, resistance to air, wet, and UV rays, and durability.

A Comparison of Asphaltic, Safety, and Acrylic Construction Seam Tapes

Asphaltic Construction Seaming Tape

The low cost of asphaltic tape makes it i of the nearly widely used tapes in the building industry. However, its many problems should discourage builders from using it.

  • Notably, asphaltic record'southward adhesion backdrop may not be consistent, depending on the surface being sealed.
  • Asphaltic tapes likewise lose adhesion properties in both extremely loftier and low temperatures, get breakable in common cold weather, and lose durability when exposed to UV rays.
  • Furthermore, asphaltic tape gives off harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

While the cost of asphaltic tape may entreatment to builders, it may not be the best choice for a construction tape for vapor barrier seams.

Rubber (Butyl) Construction Seaming Record

The original blueprint of the condom (butyl) construction seaming record aimed to improve on asphaltic record. The start rubber tape used natural prophylactic components. Today'due south rubber tape, called butyl tape, uses a synthetic (elastomer) safe. Butyl record performs meliorate in extreme temperatures, and information technology retains flexibility and durability over time compared to asphaltic tapes.

However, compared to acrylic seam record, butyl tape can lose adhesion and discolor over fourth dimension due to its intolerance to cold temperatures and UV rays.

Acrylic Structure Seaming Record

Acrylic seam tape adapts to any surface and temperature and performs far meliorate than either asphaltic and butyl tapes. Builders will notice acrylic seam tape well worth the small extra expense over asphaltic and butyl tapes. Acrylic tape…

  • Offers superior long-term durability over asphaltic and butyl tape.
  • Provides adhesion properties that proceeds strength over time, compared to asphaltic and butyl tapes that lose adhesion over time.
  • Tin withstand temperature extremes without any loss of adhesion or performance, different asphaltic and butyl record.
  • Can be used both indoors and outdoors.
  • Does not emit VOCs.
  • Tolerates UV exposure, unlike asphaltic and butyl tape.

Builders that use acrylic tape to seal the seams of a vapor barrier ensure a tight building envelope. A tightly sealed building envelope reduces free energy use and moisture intrusion, which prevents the growth of mold. Mold tin can dethrone the integrity of a building and create an unhealthy IAQ.

Contractors striving to go along upwardly with increasing energy codes and demands for healthy indoor environments should switch to acrylic tape, like Barricade Seam Record, for vapor barrier seams.

Why Select Barricade Seam Tape for Vapor Barrier Seams?

Barricade Acrylic Seam Tape seals the joints between adjacent layers of a vapor barrier where air and moisture could penetrate the wall system. Barricade Seam Tape helps produce a continuous and tight building envelope that reduces free energy costs and improves the integrity and IAQ of a building:

  • The composition of the tape includes a polypropylene film coated with a cold-atmospheric condition acrylic adhesive arrangement. The product ensures adhesion between the seam tape and the business firm wrap.
  • The flexibility and ease of application save contractors time and money.
  • The air- and moisture-resistance and low-permeability of Battlement Acrylic Seam Tape contributes to the immovability and health of a building.
  • The tape'south tensile force provides long-term durability for the product.
  • With depression to no VOC, it contributes towards a healthy interior.

To encounter the demands of today's energy-efficient and healthy structures, builders must apply CI, forth with an efficient vapor barrier system sealed with a high-quality construction seaming tape, like Barricade Acrylic Seam Tape. Sealing the seams of a vapor bulwark organisation with Battlement Seam Acrylic Record will ensure a tight continuous air barrier that reduces moisture intrusion and accumulation into the wall organization. Please contact Barricade Building Products for more information on how to select the best construction tape for vapor barrier systems.