The Importance of House Wrap

One of the main roles of your homes’ exterior is to keep the elements like water and moisture on the outside of your home. Several factors play a part in keeping this true like your house’s roof, siding, windows and doors. But maintaining a dry home involves more than just what your eye can see.  What lies beneath is just as important. One key component that’s crucial is house wrap.

House Wrap

House wrap is exactly what it sounds like, a wrap that goes around your home. It acts as a breathable barrier to let water vapor and air pass through, all the while blocking water from getting into your home. There are few types of house wrap on the market. At Exteriors by Mosby we prefer Tyvek HomeWrap. It’s a non-woven material which our sales consultant, Kurt Doll, describes as feeling similar to a dollar bill.

House wrap serves multiple purposes. For starters, having a house wrap is a code requirement for new construction homes.  A lot of homes built in the late 1990’s to mid-2000s were built without house wrap and as a result, our exteriors experts see quite a bit of moisture issues in these homes.

Aside from keeping water out of the home, house wrap allows the home to breathe by allowing water vapor (water in a gas form) to flow through, keeping the wall sheathing dry, helping prevent any rot and mold. It also has an energy efficiency quality by stopping air from penetrating through to the walls which will help with your heating and cooling bills.

When installing house wrap on an existing house, the siding should be removed to allow for proper application and the installation of flashing around windows and doors. This also brings up why installing new siding over old siding is not a great idea, which you can learn more about here.

Yes, house wrap is another way to keep the elements outside of your house, but it’s important to remember that your home is not designed to be like an air tight submarine. Water penetration can still occur to the best built homes, but homes that are constructed to proper industry standards, code compliance, and those that are regularly maintained to these standards, have the best chance of keeping problems at bay.

Exteriors by Mosby is a full service exterior remodeling company. We can improve your home’s exterior from roof to curb and everything in between including, windows, siding, roofing, doors, and more.  If you wish to schedule a consultation, call 314-909-8383, or click here.