An airtight building enclosure is an important part of a modern building. Airtightness is achieved with an effective air barrier system that is carefully designed, detailed, and then built and commissioned in the field....

Due to the variety of cladding materials available today, and designers’ penchants to combine styles and textures, it is essential to specify building envelope controls, such as gypsum-integrated water-resistive barrier-air barrier (WRB-AB) sheathings, which...

Performing airtightness testing on Part 3 buildings has been limited to high-performance projects. However, there is now a trend of mandatory airtightness testing in North America. With the third version, the Toronto Green...

When selecting air barrier products to employ in building designs, architects have a broad range of choices. Spray foam insulation products are often selected because they can provide superior performance and also contribute to...

On June 26, BC Housing is conducting a seminar/webinar on “Building Smart with Airtightness Testing: Part One – The Essentials.”

For commercial buildings, membrane roof systems can serve as part of an air barrier system. While this is common practice, questions still arise on how to design, specify, and install an effective air barrier...

During the 1970s, extensive research was carried out in Canada on air leakage in buildings. Researchers at the National Research Council (NRC) demonstrated the importance of managing air leakage through the building enclosure. In...

With varying degrees of detail and prescription, Canadian building codes—regardless of the model code—require all buildings to be provided with an air barrier. Where the language is more performance-oriented, such as in Part 5...