Alpine Siding Contractor Washington’s Company | Bellingham | Ferndale
Trusted for Over 22 Years: 350+ Five-Star Reviews and 1,000+ Verified Jobs Completed
BUILDING ENVELOPE DIVISION
Washington’s Preferred James Hardie Siding Experts
What is the Building Envelope? Many people may not be familiar with this process. For contractors this is crucial.
A building envelope is the physical separator between the conditioned and unconditioned environment of a building including the resistance to air, water, heat, light, and noise transfer.
This is the process you see to your right – in order to protect what is in the structure, it is important you keep out the elements that may harm your structure. In siding or often referred to as cladding – water and air is the most important element to keep out of your structure. That is the purpose of installing siding/cladding.
Air Barriers
Air barriers control air leakage into and out of the building envelope. Air barrier products may take several forms: Mechanically-attached membranes, also known as housewraps, usually a polyethylene-fiber or spun-bonded polyolefin, such as Tyvek is a generally accepted moisture barrier and an air barrier.
Rainscreen System
A rainscreen is an exterior wall detail where the siding stands off from the moisture-resistant surface of an air barrier applied to the sheathing to create a capillary break and to allow drainage and evaporation. The rain screen is the siding itself but the term rainscreen implies a system of building.