Zip system pros & cons from experience
measureright
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
Iam working with the Zip system roof and wall siding for first time anyone have any suggestions , or complaints about it.
Replies
I havent used it but I did just come from a four hour seminar about it a cpl of weeks ago and I'm real impressed. The expense seems to be in the tape. For me...what I'd most definitely use it for is for the roof if nothing else...especially if I don't plan on having it roofed right away. You'd save a tremendous amt of time not having to cover and uncover over and over again the roof with tarps. A large tarp alone is about $150. the time it takes to cover and uncover adds up to a lot of scratch assuming it's a nice sized roof.
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The Woodshed Tavern Backroom
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Used it for the first time recently on a 3 pitch three season room addition. Had to be real careful not to over sink the nails in the field or you would have to tape over the nail head to be completely dry.The panels themselves are competitively priced but the tape adds a bit more.Because of a design change(added three skylights) I ended up Ice and Water shielding the whole roof. Made it kinda of a waste in the end.Also noticed a bit of expansion at the roof edges from the water going down and soaking into the exposed ends. Don't know if they say you should put tape on the ends as well???Overall I think it has potential to stick around for a while.
I have been using it for three years now. I frankly view it as the belt part of my typical belt and suspenders approach. I am also a big fan of Huber products, the resins in the Zip system are far better than resin on other OSB's. I have three year old chunks of zip wall and roof outside with limited swelling.
The built in spacer make installation slightly faster as well. and the system does work. We kept a house dry for 3months using only zip roof. It had two leak in valleys that were not taped that well. We now just put Ice and water into the valley and use the zip tape everywhere else.
I have had great success with the zip system
Bruce
Did you buy the tape dispenser? If so whatcha pay for it? $100?View Image
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My first project with the Zip system was just as the product was being introduced into Central Texas and we ended up buying nearly two units of zip wall and two units of zip roof. They gave me tape gun.
The tape is expensive, but in my opinion has improved over the past couple of years.
just curious about the gun$ cause I won it in a raffle at the seminar(w/a roll of tape in it)View Image
The Woodshed Tavern Backroom
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I believe the yard said the retail value of the gun was $100 as I bought the $300 box of tape.
We've been using it as our sheathing of choice for a couple years now. It's great to get dried in that much quicker and easier. We still use a housewrap though, so we can detail flashings properly. Also, the perm rating is low (2-3 perms) so it's almost a vapor retarder, which works ok as long as you don't have a vapor barrier on the inside wall. I think in a decade or so we're going to see a lot of problems from builders who are still using poly sheeting on the inside with ZIP sheathing on the outside.
In other words when you insulate put the insulation in the walls but dont use poly stapled to studs:)?Regards, * Oh thanks for thinking ahead
Right, we prefer the airtight drywall approach, which relies on latex paint to allow vapor to pass slowly through the wall in either direction. It's critical to seal any penetrations, inside and out, though.