# rain screen vs. 30 pound felt



## hammer 689 (May 26, 2010)

i live on the oregon coast in a severe wind and rain climate and i'm always thinking or maybe over thinking the best way to wrap a house.i have always used felt with proper flashings and peel and stick membranes with what seems to be good success.i have also torn into five or six year old houses that typar or tyvek was used and you could put your hand through the sheeting an sometimes the studs so i consider it garbage unless maybe used with a rain screen which i don't use and consider untested and would never use anyways in this climate.this has probably been debated here before but would like to hear what others are using in similar climates and would like to know if any of these newer products really work.for now i will stick with 30 pound astm felt.


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## Winchester (Jun 29, 2008)

rain screen.

air space for drainage and drying wins 100%


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## hammer 689 (May 26, 2010)

thanks for the input winchester.i'm just old school and having a hard time changing my ways,if its not broke dont fix it.the rain screen makes perfect sense and looks great but i cant seem to make myself try it


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## Winchester (Jun 29, 2008)

it _is_ broke. especially depending on the cladding and climate.


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## jhark123 (Aug 26, 2008)

Winchester, how much air gap are you leaving and what are you using for furring?


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## jhark123 (Aug 26, 2008)

Also, are you putting flex flashing and z metal behind the furring?


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## Winchester (Jun 29, 2008)

when you need to flash openings, use self-adhered and then metal over that for the head and sills (and overlap the building wrap obviously).

we generally use pt strapping. you can go as small as 3/8" gap, but I wouldn't go less. they say anything smaller than 1/8" and you can get capillary action so play it safe right?


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## hammer 689 (May 26, 2010)

i have to disagree winchester.felt has been used forever and i have built alot of houses here on the coast and done additions on houses ive built with no evidence of rot the way i'm doing it and this is the way most people who are quality builders in this region have wraped houses even with two layers of felt and even ice and water or a membrane on the south west exposure not saying the rain screen isnt better but i cant say felt is broke as you claim.it does sound like the rain screen is the way to go but i wanted to hear from some more people on this and get a little more info from some people who have framed or sided coastal homes for twenty plus years like i have.how long have you been using the rain screen method?


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## Winchester (Jun 29, 2008)

hammer 689 said:


> i have to disagree winchester.felt has been used forever and i have built alot of houses here on the coast and done additions on houses ive built with no evidence of rot the way i'm doing it and this is the way most people who are quality builders in this region have wraped houses even with two layers of felt and even ice and water or a membrane on the south west exposure not saying the rain screen isnt better but i cant say felt is broke as you claim.it does sound like the rain screen is the way to go but i wanted to hear from some more people on this and get a little more info from some people who have framed or sided coastal homes for twenty plus years like i have.how long have you been using the rain screen method?


try putting stucco on felt without rainscreen in our area and see what happens. we've had many millions of dollars in damage and repairs due to this here. It's called the leaky condo crisis (but it's not limited to condos)

like i said, depends on the cladding and the climate if it's "broken" or not. 

there are very old homes around that have had stucco for many decades and are fine, but the reason is mostly due to the fact that the way they did stucco before with the lathe unintentionally created a rainscreen. Also older homes were not so airtight like they are today, allowing things to dry out.

Rainscreen is part of the local code now because we have had so many issues with face-sealed and concealed-barrier assemblies and because we get months of wetness not allowing anything to dry out.

concealed-barrier with felt can work, but hey, there is a better way.

I do prefer felt over other products like tyvek except that tyvek can also be used as an air-barrier.

there are many good people on here that prefer felt and there are good threads on here already comparing it to products like tyvek.
If you don't do rainscreen, then I'd agree and say felt is better. It will let stuff dry out quicker since Tyvek will only let water through as vapour.


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## Winchester (Jun 29, 2008)

hammer 689 said:


> i wanted to hear from some more people on this and get a little more info





Winchester said:


> there are good threads on here already comparing it to products like tyvek.


Also likely the reason you haven't got much input in this thread is there are so many about felt already.


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## hammer 689 (May 26, 2010)

thanks for the added info.always trying to do stuff better i figured this has been a worn out subject i just dont get on here as often as i should.stucco here is pretty much obsolete here.with your input and others i better get with the times and start using a rain screen.do you know about any of the wraps with the rain screen built in.what do you think of those.do you use felt with your system or another type of wrap?


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## Winchester (Jun 29, 2008)

hammer 689 said:


> thanks for the added info.always trying to do stuff better i figured this has been a worn out subject i just dont get on here as often as i should.stucco here is pretty much obsolete here.with your input and others i better get with the times and start using a rain screen.do you know about any of the wraps with the rain screen built in.what do you think of those.do you use felt with your system or another type of wrap?


i've never used them, but i think the wraps with the built-in rainscreen are mostly used for shingle siding and stuff where vertical strapping isn't practical.


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## rock16 (Feb 25, 2010)

You cant beat a rainscreen application in the PNW. I am not a big fan of tyvek but Pactiv C-2000 or one of the vaproshield products will outlast and out perform felt. If you really want to see black paper on the wall use 60 Min grade D building wrap, fortifiber has a 10 year warranty on their product.
Homeslicker makes a nice wrap that I like to use under shingle installations.


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## kwikfishron (Apr 13, 2011)

Hammer, you do know that a rain screen is now code in Oregon and has been since 1/10. 

There was a grace period that ended on 4/10.

Google it for the details. There are a few exceptions


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## hammer 689 (May 26, 2010)

ya i have heard that and will start using it but 95% of the people i know dont and the inspectors here anyway are not enforcing it or not talking about it.there are a lot of really nice homes built here and on the bandon bluff by old school builders that taught me and they will still insist on using felt so its hard for me to change too because it works.i'm over it and moving on to the rain screen.i guess i might be a little stubborn


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## Winchester (Jun 29, 2008)

you can use felt with rainscreen assembly

you can still feel good inside


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## Anti-wingnut (Mar 12, 2009)

Dude, you are seriously messed up. 

You're talking about how old school you are, and how rain screens are this new fangled stuff.

Wrong.

I'll show you a 100 year old four square about a mile from me that was rain-screened.


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## kwikfishron (Apr 13, 2011)

hammer 689 said:


> ya i have heard that and will start using it but 95% of the people i know dont and the inspectors here anyway are not enforcing it or not talking about it.there are a lot of really nice homes built here and on the bandon bluff by old school builders that taught me and they will still insist on using felt so its hard for me to change too because it works.i'm over it and moving on to the rain screen.i guess i might be a little stubborn


Whether they’re enforcing it or not and what you, me or anyone else thinks about it doesn’t matter, it’s code now. If there’s any type of failure even years down the road you’ll be liable.

Tried posting a link to the new code but newbie here’s not worthy yet.


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## hammer 689 (May 26, 2010)

wing nut read closer.i said i was taught by old school guys and felt is the wrap of choice for most builders i know who taught me on the oregon coast so it would be a new concept for me not a new concept in general.if you google rain screen code in oregon you will see the head of the state building codes division even talk about how coastal builders here mainly use 30 pound felt because it does work and thats what they have used for ever and he admits it works.i was just trying to get some other opinions because here it is a newer concept.i only know a few people who use rain screens and thats when they build a ways inland off the coast.so take it easy dude.


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## hammer 689 (May 26, 2010)

ive got it. i'm using it so thanks to the people with the helpful info.


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