Tar Paper Under Vinyl Siding

Vinyl siding allows for lots of air movement because of the manner in which the siding is designed and installed.

Tar paper under vinyl siding.

Proper installation is required to make this system work. The short answer is that felt paper is fine as a weather resistant barrier behind vinyl siding and will not cause a problem if the siding is installed correctly. I want to replace the tar paper but i can t find it at homedepot or lowes. To sum it up house wrap is a lightweight paper like material that is most often used to completely cover the house directly on top of the sheathing and behind the vinyl siding.

For stucco the standard is two layers of grade d building paper. The topics covered on this site include activities in which there exists the potential for serious injury or death. Felt paper also commonly referred to as tar paper is an underlayment material applied to bare walls before siding is installed. Felt paper under house siding.

I saw a new house with felt paper under the siding rather than tyvek. The irc 2000 code and our building dept. Basically putting tar paper or approved housewrap on the exterior walls before siding is installed is the first step to build an effective redundant barrier system. You must design a drainage plane that keeps water out.

In fact many builders disagree on the effectiveness of house wraps altogether and while some builders will only install 15 pound asphalt saturated felt paper underneath exterior siding others swear by plastic fabric house wraps such as typar or tyvek. Its primary purpose is to prevent air and water leaks that may have seeped past the vinyl exterior. If you want vertical drainage with tar paper you have to add treated lumber strips on top of the tar paper. Siding applied directly over tar paper creates a sandwich effect and can trap water between the siding material and the tar paper.

This is a time intensive process and requires all sorts of skill. Tar paper does not offer this. This column was inspired by a phone consultation i did with a homeowner whose house was covered with tar paper in 2012 when it was built. Faq s acronym s terminology to tyvek or not to tyvek that is the question.

Nowadays low cost 15 felt can weight as little as 8 to 12 pounds per square 100 sq. But because the vinyl siding covers the felt paper it is shielded from the sun and never gets hotter than the temperature of the siding from solar gain. Use tyvek over building felt under siding.