Is exterior air sealing tape strong?

Exterior air sealing tape is durable, reliable, and manufactured to last for at least 100 years, or the building's lifespan. It's also moderately elastic, ensuring that the air seal persists despite substrate or structural movement over time.

What does air sealing do?

Air sealing reduces or eliminates cracks, openings, and other potential gaps between substrates and building materials, improving home comfort and heating or cooling efficiency.

Do you need to tape air and vapor barrier seams?

Installing insulation products reduce heat transfer and moderate the impact of temperature fluctuation between the inside of your home and the outdoors. Air and vapor barriers are only as good as their sealing, and it's critical to seal barrier seams to ensure a continuous air barrier.

How much is a roll of exterior air sealing tape?

Air Sealing tapes cost between $12 and $75 per roll, depending on several factors, including width, length, adhesion technology, durability, and performance.

What will exterior air sealing tape stick to?

Exterior Air Sealing Tape bonds to a structures building envelope and many exterior building materials, such as: Barriers, retarders, and control layers Tears in insulation Construction films Sheathing Wall corners Roof and facades Windows and door frames Cement fiberboards Base and panel joints Exterior pipes Masonry Concrete Metals Hard plastics Electric cables

Why do air leaks in a home matter?

An air leak can result in a 30-70% increase in home heating and cooling energy usage. Air leaks can lead to cold spots, drafts, and moisture, which can lead to mold.

Is an airtight home always good?

Pairing an airtight home with mechanical ventilation is crucial to ensure high-performance homes are safe for their occupants. Indoor air can contain pollutants stemming from mold, off-gassing, and monoxide, which can be two to five times higher than the air outdoors. Mechanical ventilation helps control relative humidity, maintain healthy indoor air quality, manage temperatures and relative humidity.

Does air sealing increase home comfort?

Air sealing a home can reduce or eliminate heat loss, cold spots, drafts, dust, pollen, and other common indoor air pollutants that enter a home from the outdoors. When paired with mechanical ventilation, air sealed homes moderate indoor air temperature more efficiently.

Does air sealing help manage moisture?

When paired with mechanical ventilation, air sealing helps control moisture entering a home by limiting or eliminating air leakage, reducing the effects on occupants' health and the building's resilience.

Can a house be sealed too tightly?

Homes cannot be sealed too tightly if proper mechanical ventilation is installed. Airtight homes enable occupants to efficiently manage heating and cooling, reduce noise, and improve indoor air quality.

In-Depth Product Guide

Exterior Air Sealing Tape

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Exterior Air Sealing Tape helps create a continuous building envelope barrier assuring a home is more airtight by preventing air and water from passing through. This type of tape improves a home's energy efficiency through continuous sealing and also reduces or eliminates dust and noise.

This type of adhesive sealing tape is a necessary component to achieve an airtight building envelope, high-performance energy efficiency standards, and energy performance levels dictated by building codes.

Air sealing tapes are one of the highest return-on-investment and cost-effective building envelope products. Through continuous sealing of a building's envelope, builders can control and prevent well-known air leak issues that contribute to increased heating and cooling costs, moisture, drafts, and even unwanted noise.

Remember, it's not just building control layer seams that require tape. Everything that penetrates a wall also requires tape. While exterior air sealing tapes are versatile, selecting a manufactured tape explicitly for its intended application is essential. Not all tapes are created equal, and tapes may be manufactured using specific materials or adhesives to increase performance, durability, and adhesion.

Creating a continuous barrier by properly air sealing a home reduces not only heating and cooling costs, but overall system requirements.

Buildings account for 40% of all energy usage in North America. Of that 40%, the heating and cooling of a building use roughly 40%. If we were to mandate airtightness in building codes, combined with proper mechanical ventilation, our building portfolio would be healthier, more energy-efficient, and dramatically reduce the amount of energy our buildings consume.