Christine Williamson: Air Barriers vs Vapor Barriers | BSFC | AIA

Christine Williamson is the Director of Building Science & Education at Acelab and the founder of Building Science Fight Club (BSFC). Check out the full course at: acelabusa.com/articles/buildi...
In this video course, she explains why most professionals in the building industry acknowledge that the concept of vapor control is difficult. So it’s not really surprising that there’s confusion surrounding vapor barriers. What’s interesting is that the root of a lot of that confusion has to do with some incorrect assumptions not about vapor control, but about air control and the role of air barriers in our buildings. Most of us assume that the purpose of air barriers is to provide comfort and energy efficiency. And this is true! Airtight buildings are much more energy efficient and tend to be much more comfortable than leaky buildings. But air control is also important for condensation control, which is critical for building durability. Vapor control is quite different in that the only reason to care about vapor control is building durability. This course examines the differences between air barriers and vapor barriers and brings some much-needed clarity to when each is required.
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