Remember your Dad yelling, “Shut that door! We can’t afford to heat (or cool) the whole neighborhood!”?

He was wise.

He knew that air leakage in and out adds to heating and cooling bills and adds to the load of an already hard-working HVAC system.

What your dad might not have known is that even with the doors and windows shut tight, the house, school, church, hospital, hotel, office tower or any other building is probably still leaking air — enough to add a percentage in double digits to the energy bill, according to a recent study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

He probably wasn’t aware of the countless pathways between inside and outside that air can follow, driven by difference in pressure, temperature and humidity. What are these pathways? On the inside end, there are electrical or plumbing penetrations into walls. Outside, there are weepholes, failed mortar joints and conduit holes through the cladding.

In between, there are non-airtight joints between plywood, OSB and other types of structural wall panels — or backup walls made of totally air-permeable CMU.

Air also enters and exits through poorly detailed rough openings around windows and doors. 

Building-wrap staples and nails create more openings for leaking air.

Your dad might not have realized how the water vapor in the leaking air, meeting a cold surface on its way through the walls, could condense in the wall. Condensation in the walls, of course, creates the moist environment that mold needs.

Your dad might not have known these things, but he still knew that air leaking in and out of buildings is costly and just plain wrong!

That’s why he would approve of PROSOCO R-GUARD Air and Water-Resistive Barriers. The water-based, fluid-applied systems continuously cover structural walls or CMU backup. Air cannot flow through. That leaves air exchange to the HVAC system, which was made for the job.

Building wraps try to stop air leaks, but a single rip, tear or staple-hole lets the air through. You may have seen those wraps flapping in the wind. Your dad would not have approved.

R-GUARD, conversely, sticks so tightly that the substrate must fail before the air and water-resistive barrier is compromised.

R-GUARD isn’t just about air. The International Building Code requires a water-resistive barrier, approved by the code council, to serve as a secondary drainage plane on the structural wall or CMU back up behind exterior claddings.

Seamless, continuous R-GUARD meets that requirement. And it’s durable enough to stand exposed to the elements for up to six months in case of construction delays.

In case the walls do get wet inside — from a roof leak or leaky pipe, for instance — R-GUARD is vapor permeable. That means the walls can dry, much to the dismay of mold. Your dad would’ve approved of that, too.


Product profile content written and provided by manufacturer.

“Being a Dad, I approve of PROSOCO R-GUARD. Being an architect I specified it for my own home.”
--A. Todd Scrimpsher, AIA
Kissling Architecture
San Antonio