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The brick poly we have here on the foundation serves two purposes, one it eliminates the bonding agent of the brick to the foundation so as the brick expands and contracts different  than what the foundation does, it doesn’t – like in the corners of the house – allow to pop that corner loose. The second purpose of  the brick poly is a moisture barrier for the exterior envelope. So you have water flowing downhill, the water flows down and comes to the outside of the weep holes of the brick if you notice on the installation of the brick poly the brick poly is put on the outside of the OSB but underneath the house wrap. This creates a drain pan for the water that comes down to the brick poly and then comes out. 

If Your House Could Talk Exterior Envelope

If the brick poly is put behind the OSB, or it’s put up before the sheathing is, then moisture has access to the bottom of the OSB which is the incorrect application. Again you want to make sure you have the drain pan coming down and nothing’s coming back.

We’re working on the integrity of the house exterior envelope. If you notice how we’re protecting the integrity here with the penetration of the freon lines for the heating and air system and the electrical lines that supply the heating air system. Through the exterior envelope of the house we have tape around to seal it off tight, then we have tape around the metal protectors sealing them off tight also. 

If Your House Could Talk Exterior Envelope

We’re looking for the integrity and to keep the moisture out of the house. This house is a full foam encapsulation so we don’t worry so much about air penetration but we do worry about the moisture penetration which is the house’s worst enemy. 

Anytime we have a penetration through the brick we want to protect that from being damaged. So if you notice, we have the wiring coming through the brick and we have the sleeves for the wire that penetrates through the brick that helps protect this wiring from being damaged by the mortar and the brick and in the process of bricking the house. 

If Your House Could Talk Exterior Envelope

Same thing with the freon lines. the metal caps will help protect the integrity of the freon lines as they penetrate through the brick during construction of laying brick and also in the long term.

On the house wrap, it’s a properly sized house wrap meaning it goes from the brick ledge all the way up into the soffit. There’s no horizontal seams at all in the house wrap, also that the application of the house wrap that we’re nailing it up with plastic caps. The benefit of a plastic cap versus a staple, a staple has a tendency to penetrate clean through the house wrap. Thus breaking the drain pan that you’re trying to protect. The plastic cap helps maintain the integrity of the house wrap and exterior envelope thus we don’t have any moisture penetration through the house wrap into the house. 

If Your House Could Talk Soffit

There’s another process that we have on the outside of the house. This process going on is again for moisture control, moisture gets through the brick through a capillary action through the mortar. So you have mortar on the back side of the brick and it as it goes down it comes out of the weep holes in the bottom of the brick. It also works as a convection going up to where the air flows helps dry the back of the brick out and it kind of insulates between the brick and the house. So that’s important to allow air to flow, so you need to have a cavity for it to flow through so if you go up to the back of the brick and you come out to the vented soffit the vented soffit allows, again, for the airflow from the brick through the soffit and back out of the house thus helping to dry and insulate between the brick and the house.

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