July 16, 2007 - Chesterfield, NH - The first-of-its-kind Mold Safe Model Home employing smart building practices to ward off mold growth, has installed a rainscreen system in the home's wall assembly to drain moisture and provide ventilation behind the exterior cladding. The key component of the rainscreen system is Home Slicker® by Benjamin Obdyke Incorporated, a product which creates a void space in the wall to promote water drainage and air flow.
Rainscreen System with Home Slicker
The project is sponsored by the Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH), a partnership of industry leaders and government officials whose mission is to accelerate the use of technologies that improve the quality, durability, energy efficiency, environmental performance, and affordability of America's housing. Home Slicker, a PATH-profiled technology, has been cited as having potential for improving housing performance by the NAHB Research Center.
Charles Perry, the consultant spearheading the New Hampshire Mold Safe Model Home effort, picked mold-resistant building materials to showcase his goal of developing a national mold prevention protocol that designers, architects, planners, and builders could follow to keep mold infestation out of home design. The selection of Home Slicker, used in conjunction with Typar® housewrap to complete the rainscreen system that is installed behind treated and stained cedar clapboard and shakes, was an obvious choice. "All of the products used on this home are among the very best currently available for mold resistance, especially in the geographical location where our home is located," Perry said.
The lakeside Mold Safe Model Home, near the nexus of Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, is subjected to heavy amounts of moisture and a wide seasonal humidity range. "Homes in this area can experience summers with temperatures reaching nearly 100 degrees and winters where it is common to have temperatures in the 20-degree-below-zero range," Perry said.
Rainscreen systems are being used more often as a moisture and mold management solution in the building envelope. In Canada, for example, the National Building Code was recently amended to mandate the use of a rainscreen system in areas that exceed a certain moisture threshold, a measure which local provinces are starting to adopt.
Home Slicker, when used in combination with a water resistive barrier like Typar, is gaining in popularity because it installs quickly and easily and is less labor intensive than the traditional method of using wood furring strips to create a continuous air space behind exterior cladding. The three-dimensional matrix creates the necessary air space to drain and ventilate moisture behind the cladding. Wind-driven rain from the outside, moisture vapor from the home's interior, and corrosive materials that leak from certain types of cladding can remain trapped behind the cladding, degrading the performance of the wall assembly and leading to mold and mildew build up.
Design and construction of the 3,000-sq.-ft. home is expected to be completed in August. Perry, a principal of Environmental Assurance Group, an environmental risk management real estate consulting firm, has included the financial community in the partnership of manufacturers, designers, and architects that are working on the Mold Safe Model Home. "Mortgage lenders and insurers often have suffered much of the financial losses involved with mold damage which ultimately is the result from a poorly designed and constructed home," Perry noted.
Benjamin Obdyke has been helping architects, builders, and contractors in Canada and the United States Build Better™ since 1868. Benjamin Obdyke develops, sources, markets, and sells proprietary roof and wall products that improve the building envelope and the performance of other building materials for the residential new construction, repair, and remodel markets. Innovations from Benjamin Obdyke, such as the first roofing ridge vent on a roll, the first wood roofing underlayment, and the first rolled product to provide drainage and air flow in rainscreen wall assemblies, have helped shape today's building practices. Headquartered in Horsham, PA, USA, Benjamin Obdyke partners with a network of distributors, dealers, buying groups, and cooperatives to reach building professionals in Canada and the United States. The website is www.benjaminobdyke.com. For more information about Benjamin Obdyke products, call 800-346-7655.