Tremco's Sustainable Building Solutions Test Facility measures
air leakage, exposing the assembly to varying air pressures to
test the performance of a variety of sealants, tapes, and other
materials. The facility was designed and is being used in
cooperation with both the Air Barrier Association of America and
the Department of Energy. In just about every climate in which
we live and build, the number one job of any building envelope
or enclosure is environmental separation. Keeping water, air,
and heat in or out of buildings can make them more resource-
efficient, durable, and safer for occupants. Lots of building
products offer some help with that, but without attention to the
joints, you lose critical continuity in your air barriers,
drainage planes, and insulation layers—particularly at the
penetrations, transitions, and margins of building assemblies.
Adhesives, sealants, tapes, and gaskets play a critical role in
achieving barrier continuity, but any sound building should
employ three strategies: weathe