Integrating continuous insulation with traditional building methods is much easier than it sounds. Take tar paper for example. Tar paper is historically the most common water resistive barrier (WRB) for residential construction. Typically after flashing is installed, the tar paper is shingled up the wall--each sheet overlapping the sheet below--to create a continuous drainage plane. To integrate continuous insulation with this system is pretty simple: just add continuous insulation! Simply install the insulation boards according to the manufacturer’s instructions on top of the tar paper layer, and you’re done,
Oftentimes continuous insulation can be intimidating to designers or installers, but its use is quite straightforward, and the benefits are abundant, as we’ve covered in this series of articles (see links below). As always, there are many more in-depth resources throughout the site. But first, watch this short video that illustrates the ease of adding continuous insulation to your project:
For additional information, review the following articles, as well as the previous videos in this series:
Perfect Wall Articles
- Creating the ‘Perfect Wall’: Simplifying Water Vapor Retarder Requirements to Control Moisture
- Perfect Walls are Perfect, and Hybrid Walls Perfectly Good
- Wood Framed Wall Insulation Calculator Explained
- New Wall Design Calculator for Commercial Energy Code Compliance
- Energy Code Math Lesson: Why an R-25 Wall is Not Equal to a R-20+5ci
- Continuous Insulation Solves Energy Code Math Problem
Video Series
- Fear Building Envelopes No More with This Website & Videos
- Video: Thermodynamics Simplified Heat Flows from Warm to Cold
- Video: Moisture Flow Drives Water Induced Problems
- Video: How the 'Perfect Wall' Solves Environmental Diversity
- Video: How Important Is Your WRB?
- Video: A Reliably Perfect Wall Anywhere
- Video: The Best Wall We Know How to Make
- Video: How to Insulate with Steel Studs
- Video: Thermal Bridging and Steel Studs
- Video: Better Residential Energy Performance with Continuous Insulation
- Video: How to (Not) Ruin a Perfectly Good Wall
- Video: Tar Paper and Continuous Insulation? No Problem!
- Video: Do CI and WRBs Go Together?
- Video: Assess Your 'Perfect Wall' Using Control Layers