Our son in law recently had a house built in north west VA. The contractor used what looked like OSB sheathing that was covered with a plastic type material. All of the seams were taped with a black tape. The walls were a green color, roof was red. No underlay was used on the roof before shingling.
Can you give me some feedback on this product? Does this take the place of house wrap?? Is it better than house wrap? What would I specify in the contract to use this material. We will be building in the same area and want the most energy efficient house we can build. Our heat/AC will be a ground source water furnace.
Thanks to all for your info.
Ralph
Replies
It's called Zipwall. It's been discussed here a little bit. IIRC it's expensive and the consensus here was that it's probably not worth it, but that can be said for lots of new products.
Sounds like the new 'ZIP' sheathing system. The coating on the osb and the tape are designed to work together to eliminate the need for houser rap and felt paper or other covering on the roof.
I've just used it on a large addition and find the taping as much work as laying felt. Is the new system time tested, nob- but all new ideas deserve to have the opportunity to prove themself.
Let's not confuse the issue with facts!
We are finishing our 2nd project with both Zip wall and Zip roof. I personally like the product and have not had any difficulty with the tape. With tape, my cost is about $15 per sheet. The Huber rep (the manufacturer) came out to the jobsite yesterday to take an look and ask for my thoughts.
I believe Huber is a top notch lumber company and all the products I have used of theirs to date have been superior and based on yesterday's experience, they really want end user input-unlike my experiences with Weyerhaueser and LP.
Bruce
The Zip sheathing system is new - to my knowledge has been out for a year, max. Here is the web site. Although I have only seen it used - not used it myself, I'll say that Huber is known for the quality of their OSB sheathing products, most notably Advantec. People "in the biz" know that Advantec is among the best. I look at this zip stuff as the next generation of Advantec. I wouldn't be too worried...