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Community and Q&A

Membrane air leakage due to strapping nails

Chrisroche | Posted in General Questions on

I know that many experts recommend putting an interior airtight membrane such as Siga Majrex behind strapping and or a service cavity to prevent accidental air leakage, but has anyone looked at how much air leakage is caused by all of the nails/screws through the strapping?

Lets say you are applying the membrane to the ceiling, strapping, then adding R-70 of cellulose, wouldn’t all that weight cause strain on the membrane, forcing tears at the nails leading to air leakage? It seems the same could happen with a dense packed double wall assembly. 

I saw that Siga is selling a double sided nail sealing tape meant for roof applications, I just don’t know how much it would be worth it for an interior service cavity. https://sigatapes.com/product/nail-sealing-tape-ii/

I have one other related question pertaining  to service cavities in double stud walls. I saw that many users on GBA are recommending putting the interior air membrane on the outside face of the interior stud. While this makes sense as it creates an simple service cavity without having to further extend the walls into the room with more strapping, my only concern is how would a dense pack cellulose installer work with this setup? Typically I have my dense pack cellulose installer apply a layer of insulweb netting between every other bay to facilitate even distribution of the cellulose. But with the membrane in the way, I cant think of  a way of isolating the double stud wall bays. 

Thanks!

Chris

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Replies

  1. Chrisroche | | #1

    I wanted to add that I am considering just going with Zip Sheathing for the ceiling instead of a membrane as it seems it would better hold the weight of the insulation and you wouldn't have to worry so much about nails/screws through the osb causing air loss. I was just curious if anyone has had luck with this approach.

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