Air Sealing Exterior Top Plates

This new cold air sucks more heat from your living space.

Air sealing exterior top plates. Probably should read top plate to ceiling and bottom plate to floor. Where walls meet floors and ceilings need to be air sealed same as around fenestration products. Whether the air barrier is continuous or interrupted.

If I can get to them I plan on spray foaming the exterior wall top plates toohowever its a low pitch roof see picture and I think it will be difficult. What these plates are being sealed to. The solution is found in a simple plywood cap plate 34 in.

Beyond meeting certificate requirements air sealing should also be considered a low hanging fruit on any residential construction project. Just go up in the attic pull back the insulation and find the top plates. Sealant can be installed on top plates and bottom plates at wall intersections sheathing joints band joists and any junctions of dissimilar materials that are prone to air.

Basically what happens is. I have used rigid foam tightly fit over the top plate between the ceiling joists and extending in a bit over the drywall. Air sealing ensures that all the effort put into constructing a tight and well-insulated structure doesnt go out the window or through the walls ceiling or foundation due to leaks that create an unwanted exchange of interior and exterior air heat and moisture.

Air Sealing Top Plates in an Attic - YouTube. With air chutes in each rafter space you can fill the void between the rigid foam and air chute for an airtight high R assembly. Air sealing the drywall to top plates is required by many of the efficiency certificate programs that SEM offers such as ecoSelect and Energy Star.

There isnt just one way to create an air barrier. The air seal should be between the pipe and the air barrier not between the sprinkler head itself and the air barrier. Air sealing these holes and gaps will greatly reduce the expensive flow of conditioned air from inside your home to outside.