Bill Robinson is a nationally known construction trainer and presenter and owner of Train2Build and Train2Rebuild, a company that provides education for the building industry and homeowners. Headquartered in New Orleans, Robinson hosts consulting and training programs that focus on detailing the building envelope in the hot/humid climate, best practices for installing doors and windows, flood hardy building materials and methods, and moisture management in the Gulf Coast region. 

And it just so happens that one of his favorite building materials is double-sided tape. Which makes Bill Robinson one of our favorite customers, obviously. 

How did you first learn about ECHOtape? Through blogging, actually. Amanda Voss reached out to me when she was researching a series of stories on moisture management and adhesive trends.

When did you start using our products? I had become fascinated with the powers of double-sided tape through my work with JLC, but ECHOtape was new to me. I reached out to Steve Underhill and he sent a couple of sample rolls for me to try and I was blown away. That was three or four years ago. I’ve been using ECHOtape ever since.

How many different ECHOtape products have you worked with? Any favorites?  Although I have used your seaming tape, I’m mostly interested in double-sided tapes, using them in applications where I need to adhere to a substrate that I can’t typically drive nails through. Or even ones where you can, because I don’t like the idea of penetrations. Any hole, no matter how small, has the opportunity to become a problem when there is moisture involved. Double-sided tape allows me to have the same powerful hold, but with the added benefit of keeping things dry. For windows and doors, I am really impressed with the Double Sided Acrylic Foam tapes, UB-F3504 and UB-F3557.  And I’m a firm believer in seaming housewrap with tape, instead of fasteners or nails. Sure, it takes a bit more time, but the air sealing benefits are worth the extra effort.

What’s been the biggest surprise using tape in your construction projects? The surprise is the versatility. The reward is the adhesion level.  A nail is a nail; it has one job and does one thing. Caulk, which is something that I use often, is more versatile, but it’s still limited.  Tape is truly multi-purpose. The different adhesive components allow me to choose the best stick for the job. And it allows me to connect, or adhere to different substrates that were previously huge challenges, such as irregular surfaces. The cool thing is that I can weather strip without fasteners and ensure a moisture-resistant barrier.  

What has your customer experience been like? Phenomenal! My go-to guy is Steve Underhill. Mostly because I’m old school; I like talking through my challenges and you can’t do that with a chatbot.  Steve listens, he’s genuinely curious, and what he’s doing makes me look good. The results speak for themselves. 

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What’s next for you and your business? Bottom line: I’m a building envelope guy that lives in the humid Gulf Coast of Louisiana. Moisture issues are what we’re trying to solve every day. Building homes to withstand hurricanes and tornadoes is important.  But the real challenge is moisture and microbial growth. 

Right now, I’m involved in a number of flood recovery and rebuilding projects, including the Disaster Justice Network in Lake Charles and lowernine.org in New Orleans. We’re creating training programs and resources — for builders and homeowners alike—to help these areas create durable, healthy, efficient, moisture-resistant homes, to better withstand the next weather event.  

As a consultant, I’m also on all kinds of Zoom meetings with building pros, the best of the best. But most of these guys are from the Northeast and Midwest, their concern is insulating houses for heating. In the humid South, we need to focus on air sealing a house for cooling and moisture. Those are two different things.  When it comes to hiring a company for a job, whether it’s an engineer, architect, or builder, make sure they know your climate challenges. If you don’t know, ask me. I’m an educator and a connector, I can find you to the right people. 

Double-sided tape is any tape that is coated with adhesive on both sides. Designed to stick two surfaces together without being seen, these versatile tapes deliver neater-looking projects and better craftsmanship. And unlike screws or rivets – which join materials at a single point – high-strength double-sided tape permanently adheres one substrate to another while spreading the stress load.

Sounds great, right!?  Yet, much like everything else on the job site, choosing the right double-sided tape for the specific application is not as easy as it sounds.  Whether you’re bonding glass, wood, steel, concrete, foam, and/or plastic together, it’s important to understand the materials you are bonding. Concrete with a textured surface is going to require more adhesive strength than, say, carpet padding.

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Best Uses for Double-Sided Tape in Construction

Outside of materials, it’s also important to understand the field conditions. A product that you used in spring or summer might not work in sub-zero winter.  Ice, rain, humidity, heat, UV, and dirt are all factors to consider when choosing the right tape or, more importantly, preventing tape failure. For more on this, check out our infographic, The Secret to Choosing the Right Tape.

That said, we are thrilled to see more and more tape being used in construction applications, especially since adhesive technology has come a long way.  As more and more builders start to focus on seaming the building envelope and getting improved HERS scores, tape is fast becoming a way to get the job done well.  Here are just some of the construction applications where double-sided tape plays a major role and we expect more and more in the future.

Overlap housewrap seams. Here’s the deal: single-sided tape used to seal housewrap may allow water to migrate behind the tape, and ultimately into the structure. Using a roller to bond the tape may help, but the better solution is to use double-sided tape as a housewrap tape so you can overlap seams and ensure no water gets through.

Overlap vapor barrier seams and attach them to cement walls in crawlspaces. More and more builders are putting vapor barriers down in crawlspaces to seam the building envelope as even in the basement there is air leakage.  You can also use a high-performance double-sided vapor barrier tape to attach the barrier to the walls instead of using screws.

Overlap any flooring underlayment including sound attenuation barriers. With more buildings becoming airtight, sound is becoming a big issue.  Use double-sided tape for any flooring underlayment including sound attenuation materials.

Permanently attach insulation to walls. Use double-sided insulation tape to attach insulation to the building and ensure it sticks.

Temporarily mount something prior to permanently fastening. Temporary double-sided tape is the perfect solution to hold something in place while you permanently mount it.  Examples include light switch junction boxes; electrical panels; electronic thermostats; baseboards; and crown moldings.

Floor protection. Often you need to cover floors or walkways with carpets or floorboards to protect the surface while construction is underway.  Our double-coated carpet tape features an aggressive adhesive system that’s perfect for carpet hold-down but will leave no residue once removed.

Easy installation of building materials. More and more manufacturers are making their products with double-sided tape for easy installation.  As labor shortage becomes a big issue, finding ways to save installation time is becoming critical.

For more information on double-coated adhesive tapes, please visit The Complete Technical Guide to Double-Sided Tape.  And if you still have questions, please contact us! We love solving unique tape challenges. 

 

In this Field Guide to House Wrap & Seaming, we’ve gathered the most important installation and seaming tape tips to build quality, energy-efficient buildings.

We will cover building code best practices, how to install housewrap (the right way), how to prevent common house wrap problems, reasons why housewrap can still leak, and how seaming tape can make your building project airtight and moisture-proof.

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House Wrap vs Vapor Barrier — What’s the Difference?

House wraps are installed to the outside surface of a home’s envelope, undersiding, or exterior cladding.

Housewraps must be permeable enough to allow water vapor to pass through them from the warm side, but still, stop bulk water like rain from entering on the cold side — similar to a Gore-Tex jacket.

Per Building America guidance, house wrap should be lapped shingle style over any exterior wall flashings installed around openings, penetrations, or where the walls intersect roofs, foundations, or other transitions. Any holes through the wall, such as for windows, water spigots, exhaust vent outlets, HVAC condensate lines, or light fixtures and receptacles, should be carefully sealed and flashed. It’s very important for any water vapor that makes it to the backside of an air barrier to keep moving so it gets to the air around the home.

Vapor barriers, on the other hand, are used to stop water vapor from entering a wall cavity, where the gas can turn into liquid water if it contacts a cold surface. If this happens and the water can’t evaporate quickly, wood rot, mold, and mildew become a reality.  A reality that is trapped on the inside of your wall.

No bueno.

The placement and permeability of vapor barriers and house wraps are addressed by building codes but vary by region. Vapor barriers are put on the inside face of wall studs in cold climates but they’re put on the exterior of homes in hot and humid climates.

The method? You want the vapor barrier as far away from the coolest wall surface as possible. In hot, humid climates, the cool side of the wall is the inside of the home, where the air conditioning is operating.

For an in-depth look at moisture in buildings, check out Building America’s moisture flow guide.

Related: read about the difference between air barriers and vapor barriers.

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Why Does Perm Rate Matter?

Permeability (aka Perm rate) is the rate at which a house wrap allows water vapor to pass through it.

Inexpensive or poorly made house wraps often have perm ratings in the 8 to 12 range, and they should be avoided.

This is especially true for older homes in cold climates with little or no moisture barriers. Moisture will escape through the wall cavity and sheathing, and if the house wrap doesn’t allow it to pass through fast enough, it will condense and accumulate in the form of frost and ice. When the ice thaws, you’ll end up with wet sheathing and/or wall cavities—not good.

Instead, choose high-quality house wrap with a perm rating over 50.

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Building Code is Best Practice for House Wrap Installation

Though many builders think of the IRC as the bare minimum requirement, when it comes to WRB installation the code is actually ‘best practice.’ It’s all in section R703 – Exterior Covering of the 2018 IRC.

R703.1.1 “The exterior wall envelope shall be designed and constructed in a manner that prevents the accumulation of water within the wall assembly by providing a water-resistant barrier behind the exterior cladding … and a means of draining to the exterior water that penetrates the exterior cladding.”

R703.2 addresses the Water-resistive barrier, giving builders and contractors two options for materials:  #15 lb tar paper meeting ASTM D226 requirements OR “other approved water-resistive barrier” (Meaning: approved by the local building official.) The manufacturers of house wraps and other WRB materials generally obtain an ICC Evaluation Service Report that code officials rely on when determining whether to accept an alternative material to #15 tar paper or not.

When “Other approved materials… are used as a WRB they shall be installed in accordance with the water-resistive barrier manufacturer’s installation instructions.” There it is — the manufacturer’s installation instructions are referenced in the code and are enforceable by the local official.

It’s critical to select the right house wrap for a home’s climate, from the dozens of varieties available; but even before that, you’ll need to find out if a house wrap is required for code compliance in your jurisdiction. Once you’ve determined if it’s necessary to meet code, you must be sure to install the product in strict adherence to manufacturer specifications so that it functions as intended.

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How to Install House Wrap The Right Way with Seaming Tape

While manufacturer instructions for installing housewrap vary, generally there are three main tasks involved: wrapping, taping, and flashing. (Click here to watch an exterior house wrap installation, courtesy of the NAHB Research Center.)

Wrapping

Wrapping should start at the foundation, or the base of the wall assembly, extending at least an inch past the wall-to-foundation intersection and continuing upwards like shingle installation with the higher course overlapping the lower.

Horizontal seams should overlap at least 2 inches and vertical seams a minimum of 6 inches.

We found this post on avoiding a bad wrap to be helpful.

Taping

All of the seams for the product should be taped according to manufacturer’s instructions. Most house wrap manufacturer installation instructions have minimum horizontal overlaps of 4-6 inches and minimum vertical overlaps of 6 -12 inches.

Most also require or recommend 1 in. plastic or metal cap fasteners. The caps protect the house-wrap from damage during installation and spread the surface area of the fastener over a broader area of the WRB so the fastener is less likely to tear through.

Double-sided seaming tape that’s applied on one part of the wrap with another course overlapping (think shingle lap) helps prevents moisture — and meets code requirements.

Flashing

One of the most precise jobs when working with house wrap is properly installing the product around windows and doors. Flashing of exterior windows and doors is critical in casting rainwater away from those areas so that assemblies remain dry and durable.

Plus, wherever roofs meet walls, kick-out and step flashing must first be installed before continuing the housewrap shingle-fashion over the flashing pieces. Otherwise, the roof/wall intersection creates a place where water will be pushed into the wall, causing major structural damage.

Check out this Technotes piece from the Home Innovation Research Labs and the Internal Code Council.

Here are three of our favorite flashing tape tips:

• Leave the outer release paper on until the flashing is stuck to the sill. That reduces the chances of the tape sticking to itself during installation.
• Use a square block to push the tape tight into the corners, being careful not to puncture the corner.
• Use a J-roller to push down the tape. Make sure to roll out any bumps and eliminate ‘fish mouth’ bubbles.

For more in-depth best practices watch this video from ProTradeCraft on proper house wrap installation.

The following are key takeaways:

• Extend house wrap below the mud sill—for water management, but also for air sealing. Seal the bottom of the house wrap to the sheathing with caulk or tape.
• Overlap the layers shingle-style as you go up the wall—like roofing shingles.
• Overlap vertical seams 6-12 inches.
• Overlap horizontal seams 6 inches (upper layer over lower layer).
• Fasteners: use a cap nailer because slap staples leak.
• Apply house wrap up the gables before installing exterior trim, even if the attic is not conditioned. House wrap is not just for air sealing the insulated parts of the house, it is mainly for water management. If the gable isn’t covered, water can get to the framing, and even behind the house wrap below.
• Wrap and seal the underside of cantilevers. Better yet, add a solid sheet good to cover the bottom, and wrap over that.
• Tape seams on flat house wrap with 2-inch tape; use 3-inch tape for wrinkled house wraps.

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How To Prevent Common House Wrap Problems 

The performance of a high-quality, vapor-permeable, house wrap is dependent on proper installation, careful handling, and limited exposure to UV radiation and outside elements. The goal of house wrap is to create an air and moisture barrier that also prevents moisture accumulation in the wall system. Ultimately, house wrap should boost a home’s energy-efficiency and create a healthy, comfortable indoor environment.

Our friends over at Barricade, pulled together the most common house wrap issues. Here’s what you need to know:

Improper House Wrap Installation. Experienced and skilled house wrap installers avoid common problems with house wrap by following several key steps when installing house wrap.

• House wrap is typically applied from the bottom of the building up, overlapping the horizontal joints by a minimum of six inches and the vertical joints by a minimum of twelve inches. Expand the house wrap over the footing top by a minimum of two inches.
• The house wrap should be fixed every 12 to 18 inches with specific stapling nails or nails designed to hold down house wrap material.
• Installation of house wrap around the window and door openings involves a Y-cut from corner to corner in the openings. Then, the loose material is folded through the openings and fastened securely.
• Seal all seams with manufacturer recommended tape, including over the layers, the top and bottom edges, and the rough openings. It is also essential to seal the areas cut by subcontractors during the installation of the cladding.

Problems with House Wrap Due to Rough Handling. Rough handling or long exposures to wind and construction debris can tear, rip, and cut the house wrap. These damaged areas of the house wrap will allow air and moisture to enter the wall system. It is critical to seal and repair all damage to the house wrap due to rough handling and overexposure to wind and construction debris.

Damage Due to Overexposure to UV Radiation. Overexposure of house wrap to the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays can discolor and photo-degrade the house wrap. UV exposure can also cause the house wrap to lose tensile strength and water repellency. In some cases, this can happen quickly, depending on the house wrap’s ultraviolet (UV) rating. The UV-rating of a house wrap is the maximum time a house wrap can withstand exposure from the sun before becoming damaged.

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10 Reasons Why House Wrap Can Still Leak

House wrap is an air barrier that creates an airtight structure by stopping air flow through a building’s envelope. But for a house wrap to stop air flow, it should be continuous over the entire building enclosure and be durable over the lifetime of the building. Unfortunately, there are several reasons a house wrap can leak after installation.

1. Housewrap seams that are not sealed properly can cause air leaks. Sealing house wrap joints with the manufacturer’s approved seaming tape can improve the wrap’s performance by about 20 percent. Sealing the seams after installing the house wrap is essential to an airtight building.
2. Using the wrong fasteners can cause air leaks. It is crucial for airtightness to use manufacturer’s stapling nails or nails designed to hold down house wrap material. Also, nails should be at least 1-inch long and spaced 12 to 18 inches on-center.
3. Not repairing the tears, rips, or cuts in the house wrap that occur during installation can lead to air leaks. It is critical to seal the damaged house wrap with code-approved contractor sheathing tape before covering with siding. Repair of larger tears in house wrap requires a taped 6-inch overlap of house wrap.
4. Not sealing the bottom edges of the house wrap can lead to air leaks.
5. Air leaks can occur if the house wrap is cut to lie flat before installing siding, but not repaired.
6. Air leaks can occur if the edges of the house wrap, cut at the rough windows and door, are not sealed. This error is common when installing utilities, pipes, cable tv, etc. For airtightness, wrap the fabric around the edges of windows and doors to the inside of the frame and seal with house wrap tape.
7. Improper overlapping of roles of house wrap can cause air leakage. Overlap and seal vertical seams by at least 6 inches. Overlap and seal horizontal seams by at least 4 inches.
8. Air leakage can occur if the house wrap does not reach the top of the wall. The house wrap should wrap up and over the top plate.
9. If the house wrap is left exposed to excessive UV rays, the house wrap may deteriorate rapidly.
10. If a house wrap is not resistant to cold, it may crack at low temperatures.

Maximizing the air barrier potential of house wrap requires the use of a quality house wrap, along with skilled house wrap installers. A quality house wrap should have high-tear and tensile strength, UV stability, cold resistance and ease of installation, which will limit damage and errors during construction.

House wrap and vapor barriers can get complicated. The movement of water, the possibility of drying, which side is warm or cool — these all factor into the success of a building’s envelope. However, getting the installation right is the final detail, ensuring that a well-chosen wrap or barrier actually performs as intended. Time spent making sure the details, like taping and flashing and placement, are all correct, means success in the long run.

After years of testing, and working with high-performance building professionals, ECHOtape has released its own seaming tape, PE-M4535 All Weather Construction Seaming Tape in addition to its All Weather Double-Sided Tape.  Formulated with a proprietary cold weather adhesive, it is engineered to adhere to a wide range of building materials and surfaces including house wrap, exterior, and rigid insulation, sheathing, vapor barriers, and a variety of underlayments.

If you’re a building contractor, ask us about a sample roll.

Combine the versatility of aluminum and the weather-resistant sealing power of adhesive tape, and you have an extremely versatile product — aluminum foil tape.

Foil tape is so versatile that it is widely used in all kinds of industries, from manufacturing to construction.

Thanks to its moisture and chemical resistance, thermal conductivity, flame resistance, heat and light reflectance, and weatherability… it makes for a tape that has a wide range of applications.

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What is Foil Tape, Exactly?

Aluminum foil was first available in 1888, and commercial production in the U.S. started in 1913. Prized for its protective qualities and attractive appearance in containers and packaging, it was widely used in World War II to protect packages, electrical capacitors, and insulation. After the war, it became available for commercial use.

Foil tapes use a specially-engineered metal-foil backing which contributes to the tape’s malleable, conductive, and rugged characteristics. Foil tape carriers include aluminum, aluminum with glass, lead, copper, copper with tin plating, and steel.

That said, when it comes to building and construction, aluminum foil tape is the most widely used foil tape. All told, here at ECHOtape, we engineered our foil tapes to have all the qualities of aluminum with the added benefit of an aggressive and long-lasting adhesive.

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Why Choose ECHOtape Aluminum Foil Tape?

Here are the top five reasons why our foil tape has become a best seller with so many of our customers:

1. UL 723 rated and meets International Building Code standards.

UL 723 is a test to measure the surface burning properties of building materials. In particular, it looks at the rate of flame spread and the density of smoke developed. To meet the International Building Code’s definition of fire-resistant, a composite material must have a flame spread rating no higher than 50.

ECHOTape’s foil tapes are UL723 certified, which is worth noting because not all cloth-backed duct tapes or foil tapes are UL 723 rated.

2. Extreme cold and heat temperature versatility.

Our foil tape works in temperatures ranging from 248°F to -22°F and can be applied in temperatures ranging from 14°F to 104°F. Most tapes do not perform well in cold temperatures. Severe cold hardens the adhesive and diminishes sticking power of the tape. If you are applying the tape under cold conditions, it may not stick at all. Conversely, excessive heat can melt the adhesive on some tapes, rendering it useless.

3. Made with an acrylic adhesive.

ECHOtape’s all-weather aluminum foil tape is coated with a superior performance flame-retardant solvent acrylic adhesive, working equally well in extreme hot and cold weather conditions.

Why does this matter?

Well, most duct tapes are made with a rubber adhesive, which is known to delaminate from its backing in high-temperature applications. Other synthetic rubber adhesives may offer a greater range of temperature functionality, but they also have lower mechanical strength, weak aging resistance, and do not fare well under UV light. By creating a foil tape with an acrylic adhesive, we’ve achieved superior durability and longevity once they cure and stick to a surface.

4. A great alternative to mastic.

Our aluminum foil tape products are not messy (the biggest drawback of mastic), and they use less equipment (no need for old clothes, eye protection, gloves, paint brushes, drop cloths, etc.) It doesn’t need additional fasteners such as sheet metal screws, scrap metal, and drywall mesh to seal large areas and it can be used to seal holes in a furnace or air handler.

5. Able to hold up over time.

In construction, pressure-sensitive tapes are often used in areas that are concealed (like housewraps or foil-faced insulation). Which means they cannot be easily repaired or replaced. Due to its acrylic adhesive technology, aluminum foil tape offers better cohesion, adhesion, and thermal stability than a tape with a rubber adhesive.

To put it another way, ECHOtape’s line of foil tape products are designed to hold up to temperature fluctuations, exposure to UV light and other solvents that would typically impact and breakdown the adhesive effectiveness of different types of tape, making them the ideal choice for both construction and industrial applications.

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How to Insulate and Seal HVAC Ducts: An Example of a Foil Tape Application

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “In typical houses, about 20% of the air that moves through the duct system is lost due to leaks, holes, and poorly connected ducts. The result is higher utility bills and difficulty keeping the house comfortable, no matter how the thermostat is set.”

Like a leaky faucet that slowly and steadily wastes water, your HVAC system’s ducts can prove a sure place to lose dollars, waste energy, and sacrifice air quality.  Insulating ducts with insulation can help with this issue, and ensuring the insulation is sealed well is the place to use foil tape.

Furthermore, we believe it’s  a good idea to inspect your ductwork periodically, especially in the following scenarios:

• After an installer or repair person has worked in your attic. A simple misstep can cause duct damage. Even an accidentally dropped tool may create a small hole that can add up to significant energy loss. (A foil tape patch will save the day!)
• If you are upgrading your air conditioning system and don’t wish to spend the money to have the ductwork replaced, an inspection and a little foil tape can go a long way to more reliable ductwork for an optimally functioning and energy-efficient system. The most highly rated HVAC units are nothing without adequately sealed ducts.
• If you are seeing an unsubstantiated rise (one not the result of a provider’s cost increase) in your utility bills
• If specific spaces or rooms seem difficult to heat or cool

Sealing and insulating your ductwork will go a long way to an economical, better climate controlled, and cleaner environment.

At ECHOtape, we offer a full range of specialty tapes that can work in all kinds of circumstances, like the aluminum foil tape solutions listed above.

To learn more about adhesive tape, refer to our Technical Guide to Adhesive Tape. Or, contact the ECHOtape team with your tape request if you want help determining which product is best for your particular project.

In just about every climate in which we live and build, the No. 1 job of any building enclosure is environmental separation.

Keeping water, air, and heat locked in or out of buildings can make them more resource-efficient, durable, and safer for occupants.

The greatest challenge in this endeavor is maintaining the continuity of our air barriers, drainage planes, and insulation layers, particularly at penetrations, transitions, and margins of building assemblies.

The answer?

High-performance seaming tape.

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Seaming Tape — A Brief History

In the early 1970s, residential builders knew almost nothing about airtightness and air movement. Even engineers were ignorant about hot and cold air leakage in buildings because the basic research hadn’t been done yet.

It wasn’t until the late ‘70s when the first residential air barriers were installed in Saskatchewan that pioneering Canadian builders began sealing the seams of interior polyethylene sheeting with Tremco acoustical sealant. (The first seaming tape, if you will.) The results were self-evident, and since then, most North American building codes now require builders to include details designed to reduce air leakage.

The same holds true in Europe, where using tape to seal the building envelope is the standard operating procedure in passive house (a.k.a. Passivhaus) construction. Passive Haus results in ultra-low energy buildings that require little energy for space heating or cooling.

In fact, tape experts cite Europe as the best example of the overall utilization of acrylic tapes in construction. “In Europe, they tape up everything when building or retrofitting to create an air-tight seal,” says David Joyce, nationally known construction and tape expert, and owner of Synergy Companies Construction LLC. “Energy costs are much higher there, and it’s a matter of necessity.” Joyce notes that the industry here in the U.S. “is just recently becoming more aware of the benefits of air-tight building practices and that acrylic tapes make that much easier.”

It’s easy to see why the practice of seaming is seeing a surge among insulation professionals: The energy benefits of air barriers are huge.

A 2005 study from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, “Investigation of the Impact of Commercial Building Envelope Airtightness on HVAC Energy Use” by Steven Emmerich and others, found that just incorporating an air barrier in a building can reduce its heating and cooling cost by up to 36%.

Furthermore, uncontrolled air leakage could have consequences beyond increased energy consumption, regarding health and safety of the building occupants, as well as premature deterioration of building materials.

Additionally, the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) and several state energy codes now require the use of air barriers. In addition, a growing number of municipal authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs) and green-building trade groups are calling for their use. Some federal agencies and large owner and developer groups also require them.

More importantly, energy efficiency and occupant comfort—two key ingredients of sustainable design—are driving the use of air barriers across market sectors. With today’s high cost of energy and concerns about Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ), air barriers are one of several construction systems with a critical role to play.

As our building profession evolves to becomes more energy-efficient, more sustainable, and more “green”, air sealing every building is going to become the norm. And, of course, more tape will be used to do this.

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Benefits of Seaming Tape in High-Performance Building

There are three primary drivers for the increased usage of seaming tapes on job sites:

1. More stringent codes. Increased building envelope requirements — air and moisture control layers;
2. Improved tape technology.
3. Heightened awareness of the high-value seaming tape by builders, contractors, and building scientists.

Don’t just take our word for it. Consider this direct quote from Building Energy Code Resource Guide

To limit air leakage, builders use tapes to seal the seams of a variety of membranes and buildings products, including housewrap, polyethylene, OSB, and plywood. Tapes are also used to seal duct seams, to seal leaks around penetrations through air barriers — for example, to seal around plumbing vents — and to seal sheet goods to a variety of materials, including concrete.

“Tapes have become much more commonplace in the construction industry today than they were 10 years ago,” Joyce says. “And they’re going to become more and more so as air sealing, energy efficiency and durability become more important, and builders are becoming more educated about the benefits of tapes over other sealants or flashing materials.”

Indeed, trend reports indicate that overall, tapes used on job-sites will outpace the overall construction industry growth (3%-5%) with an estimated 6%-7% annual growth rate. New residential tape use will increase the fastest in double digits due to code compliance. In the past, tapes were used sparingly on joists and viewed as a temporary fix or cheap solution.

Today, tapes have transitioned into high value and highly functional products that enhance building airtightness,  prevent water intrusion, and even increased roof safety and integrity in high wind events.

Today’s newer and higher-performing adhesive tapes offer builders better choices and multiple advantages over conventional building materials. These tapes actually stick better over time, are more durable, and are more weather resistant. Indeed, modern adhesive technology is much more sophisticated as a whole.

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The Next Generation of Seaming Tape

When it comes to choosing the best construction tape, the maxim that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” doesn’t cut it. High-performance construction tapes will become more important as the construction industry deals with stricter regulations and as best practices in the industry change with the times.  To stay ahead of these changes, and meet the needs of high-performance builders across North America, we’ve recently launched a new seaming tape that uses advanced adhesive technology to stick to just about anything

PE-M4535 is a next-generation seaming tape for the construction professional looking for superior performance.  Formulated with a proprietary cold weather adhesive —excellent cold climate adhesion to -4°F! — PE-M4535 is engineered to adhere to a wide range of building materials and surfaces. Made from an advanced polyester backing, it is extremely strong, yet can still be torn by hand, which makes it easy to apply.

Highly adaptable and versatile, PE-M4535 can be used in a wide variety of building envelope sealing applications, such as:  

• House wrap
• Insulation, including polysio-cyanurate and reflective insulation
• Exterior sheathing
• Vapor barriers, including polyethylene films
• Flooring and roofing underlayments

At ECHOtape, we’re focused on generating real-world adhesive solutions that help Building and Construction professionals work more efficiently and cost-effectively on every job site. It’s why we’ve engineered such an extensive line of durable, resilient, weather-resistant construction tapes, including seaming tape, insulation tape, foil tape, stucco tapes, cold weather tape and more. So, no matter what project comes your way, the quality and reliability of your work are guaranteed.