The Project:
A restaurateur with a passion for building energy efficient houses set out to build his forever home in Park City, Utah. He designed his new home with contemporary styling with a focus on energy efficiency and savings.
The Utah home is 4,500 square feet, two stories with four bedrooms and a garage. Instead of traditional wood framing, high performance panelized building components were selected to provide premium energy efficiency. The panelized building components were used for the floors, walls and roof. The home was built with geo-foam walls and heavy duty steel beams to create a durable structure.
The Challenges:
Park City rises into the clouds atop the Wasatch Mountains, at 7,000 feet above sea level. The home needed to withstand punishing winds, snow and rain, while also achieving the goal of premium energy efficiency to keep heating and cooling costs low.
Another key concern was keeping sound out. Mother Nature can be very noisy up in the mountains, so it was important to protect the interior of the home from her loud winds, banging rain and other disruptions.
Lastly, as Park City is near the Wasatch Fault, the home is also vulnerable to earthquakes.
The use of the panelized building components provided many benefits for combating the extreme weather, sounds and earthquakes. They found that the panelized system was so strong on its own that in many areas of the home it did not need exterior wood sheathing. However, this was a challenge when it came time to select a weather resistive barrier for the home. The team found that many of the weather barriers on the market are designed for application to wood sheathing only. Thus, a new type of weather resistive barrier was needed.
The Solution:
After research, the building team discovered GCP’s VYCOR enV-S self-adhered weather resistive barrier. The fully-adhered weather barrier seals to the substrate, including steel and foam, seals to itself at overlaps and seals around the thousands of fasteners used to attach siding, trim and other decorative features, forming a water- and air-tight seal.
GCP sent their local representatives out to the jobsite where they provided samples to test. The bond was significant. They then pursued the opportunity to study the application for the final exterior. They met with the Summit County building officials and found it exceeded IRC code requirements. The project was a go.
GCP’s VYCOR enV-S self-adhered weather resistive barrier is the ultimate energy savings solution for this project. The well-respected Oak Ridge National Laboratory tested the
VYCOR enV-S membrane and found that it boasts an air leakage rate that is seven times lower and provides 46.3% more energy savings than a traditional housewrap.
The barrier sealed tightly to the steel and foam construction of his dream home, protecting it from severe weather and keeping the interior warm, dry and quiet. VYCOR enV-S’s enhanced energy efficiency, superior long-term weather protection and ability to adhere to the home’s innovative building materials, checked all the boxes for the builder and homeowner.
For more information please visit: www.gcpat.com
