Wrapped the house today. I think we’d both been postponing this as long as possible because it sounded hard, and I’m not gonna lie – manhandling a 9 foot tall roll of Tyvek WAS hard. But once we found a flow things went pretty easily. (Notwithstanding a few comments made while wedged between the house, Brian, the roll of Tyvek and the back fence that don’t bear repeating here…)
We decided to use cap nails to attach the Tyvek. Code specifies cap nails or cap staples, but for years regular staples were used. My attitude had been that if staples were good enough for so long and we’d be putting up the rain screen almost immediately, why not use the tools and materials we already had? But I threw a box of cap nails in the cart just in case.
I’m glad I did, because it was a windy day and after tacking a few staples in the first corner it became obvious why caps are specified- the Tyvek would have torn itself apart quickly in the wind. So nails it was!
We had opted for nails as the backup because this is a small project, and the lowest-priced cap stapler would have set us back $100+ for the tool and special staples. And judging from its reviews that stapler was also the lowest quality option and sounded like it had issues – or at least a learning curve about as big as our entire job. So our options were $100 + a bunch of potential frustration, $250 for a good tool we’d use for about an hour total, or an $8 box of nails and some hammer swinging.
The nails were fussy and there was definitely a learning curve, but all in all it wasn’t bad. If we were building something bigger or knew we’d be building another of these soon (Brian’s already planning #2…), though, I’d consider investing in the stapler.
Good progress today, we’ll finish wrapping and taping tomorrow to prep for the windows and doors’ arrival later this week!
x Liz
