April 2, 2007 --(Valley Forge, Pennsylvania) --Moisture and mold problems are the last things the people of East Grand Rapids, Michigan, will have to worry about at their new Community Center, thanks, in part, to a revolutionary vapor retarder from CertainTeed Corporation.
MemBrain will provide East Grand Rapids Community Center with dry, healthy walls in years to come.
CertainTeed® MemBrain™ Smart Vapor Retarder was a key sustainable building material featured last summer in a green construction project that produced the new East Grand Rapids Community Center. The publicly funded project involved remodeling and connecting the town's aging City Hall, Public Library and a former water reservoir to create the new East Grand Rapids Community Center. Because of the sustainable nature of the project and the preference of the community, the city's architectural firm, Cox Medendorp Olson Architects, Inc., decided to take the green construction route and aim for LEED® certification. MemBrain, a product that is beginning to make regular appearances on green construction specification sheets, was chosen for its superior moisture management abilities, says Bill Rapson, Architect with Cox Medendorp Olson.
"To create an efficient wall cavity, we needed a vapor retarder that will allow the wall to dry to both sides, depending on the particular climate condition," he says. "We started looking at the product because we'd always been a fan of the ability of kraft paper facing to drain moisture out to the exterior. Key advantages of MemBrain, though, are that it is breathable and inorganic. Kraft paper is organic, so when it gets wet, bacteria like to eat it."
Patented by CertainTeed's parent company Saint-Gobain, MemBrain Smart Vapor Retarder reacts to varying humidity conditions by changing its molecular permeability to allow wall cavities to stay dry and help reduce the risk of damaging mold and mildew. The unique vapor retarder performs well in such climates as in West Michigan, which features high humidity in summer months and low humidity in winter months. The product can be used as a companion to unfaced fiber glass batt insulation, OPTIMA® blown-in wall insulation, and is also available as a built-in facing on CertainTeed's one-of-its-kind DryRight™ Fiber Glass Insulation.
"MemBrain epitomizes sustainability, as it increases interior wall life by protecting it from moisture that can lead to damaging mold growth," says Stan Gatland, Manager of Building Science Technology at CertainTeed. "That makes MemBrain an ideal product choice for any green construction project, and we believe it will provide East Grand Rapids Community Center with dry, healthy walls in years to come."
About CertainTeed
Through innovation and creative product design, CertainTeed has helped shape the building products industry for more than 100 years. Founded in 1904 as General Roofing Company, the firm made its slogan "Quality Made Certain, Satisfaction Guaranteed," which quickly inspired the name CertainTeed. Today, CertainTeed is North America's leading brand of exterior and interior building products, including roofing, siding, windows, fence, decking, railing, trim, foundations, pipe, insulation, walls, ceilings and access covers.
Headquartered in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, CertainTeed and its affiliates have approximately 9,000 employees and 70 manufacturing facilities throughout the United States and Canada. In 2006 the group had consolidated sales approaching $4 billion.
www.certainteed.com