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Community and Q&A

Applying tapes in winter/bad weather

joenorm | Posted in General Questions on

Not all houses can be built in the summer months.

Is it OK to install sealing tapes in wet weather or even when the plywood sheathing of a house is slightly moist from rain?

thanks

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Replies

  1. brianvarick | | #1

    This doesn't really answer your question but Risinger just posted a video showing the cold weather adhesion of zip tape and it was pretty impressive.

  2. Expert Member
    BILL WICHERS | | #2

    Excessive moisture on the surface will usually prevent, or at least severely reduce, the adhesion of the tape. You really need dry surfaces, ideally above freezing too. If you have, or expect to have, an extended wet period around the time you want to be taping, you need to protect the area to be taped from the weather. In my experience, wiping the surface to dry it prior to taping doesn’t usually work very well because you can never get the surface dry enough.

    Bill

  3. Peter Yost | | #3

    HI Brian -

    I have done quite a bit of testing of PSA tapes (see: https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/article/two-wingnuts-describe-their-backyard-tape-tests or this blog series: http://www.buildinggreen.com/stickybusiness).

    In my testing--and I completely admit that the testing is more anecdotal than statistical in nature--the acrylic PSA tapes outperformed all the others. But not ALL acrylic PSA tapes performed well; I tested these three and they were all high performance in my book, although the last in the list performed the best overall: SIGA, Pro Clima, ZIP.

    All the acrylics did better than the rest when tapes and substrates were cold (below 40; the new ZIP is good down to 0 F). Moisture is a different beast; the adhesives needs to "wet" to bond at the molecular level--tiny little electrostatic charges--and water gets in the way of that bonding.

    ONCE the bonding has taken place--and I have done a lot of testing when I wetted the tape and substrate on both sides--the acrylics keep their adhesion but the INITIAL moisture at the surface of the substrate is tough to get around. The substrate needs to be DRY. How dry? Become a wingnut yourself: wet the substrate you will be using the tape with, wipe it "dry," measure the moisture content of the substrate, see if the tape holds.

    Peter

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