The Four Barriers: Waterproofing, Insulation, Air Barrier, and Vapor Barrier

Building enclosures are essentially an assembly of multiple critical barriers that, in combination, govern the building’s ability to control, among other elements, heat transfer, water penetration, and condensation. In this webinar, we will introduce building enclosure design and explore the building science concepts of waterproofing, heat transfer, air flow, and vapor diffusion. We will review design principles that generate effective barriers for combined water, air, vapor, and heat flow through the building enclosure and provide examples of how misunderstanding or misapplying these principles can lead to failures. We will also discuss, in greater detail, the considerations designers should be aware of when selecting and installing resilient air barriers in exterior wall cladding systems.