What About All Those Holes?
Preventing water intrusion is a very important part of building design. It is very costly to repair the damage caused by leaks in the building envelope. Finding the leaks in a building clad with cement stucco is time consuming and usually requires cutting holes in the walls. Only after the leak is detected and repaired can the work of patching and restoring begin. The damage may have extended from the exterior walls to interior drywall, flooring, paint, and possibly furniture, as well as the possibility of mold related issues.
Consequently, builders focus significant effort on trying to make buildings more resistant to water. We pay more attention to proper flashing at doors, windows, decks, etc. We caulk around windows, pipes, electrical outlets and anything that penetrates the building paper. However, until now no one has addressed the vulnerability created by the THOUSANDS of fasteners that attach the lath. Each one pierces the building paper that is the ultimate barrier to stop water intrusion.
Now there is the Fasten Seal Furring nail. As a supervisor for a stucco contractor in California part of my responsibility was to find leaks, and during the heavy El Nino rains of the late 1990's there were plenty. I found many leaks that originated at a window, electrical box or just a crack in the stucco. The water would then run down the paper as it is supposed to, meeting thousands of entry points created by all the lath fasteners, on it's way down to the weep screed at the bottom of the wall. Some builders have attempted to address this issue by applying caulk individually to each fastener, which is time consuming and not particularly effective. Other builders continue to roll the dice and hope for the best. Now there is a solution. - The Fasten Seal self sealing furring nail.
- Kirk Anderson, Inventor
Preventing water intrusion is a very important part of building design. It is very costly to repair the damage caused by leaks in the building envelope. Finding the leaks in a building clad with cement stucco is time consuming and usually requires cutting holes in the walls. Only after the leak is detected and repaired can the work of patching and restoring begin. The damage may have extended from the exterior walls to interior drywall, flooring, paint, and possibly furniture, as well as the possibility of mold related issues.
Consequently, builders focus significant effort on trying to make buildings more resistant to water. We pay more attention to proper flashing at doors, windows, decks, etc. We caulk around windows, pipes, electrical outlets and anything that penetrates the building paper. However, until now no one has addressed the vulnerability created by the THOUSANDS of fasteners that attach the lath. Each one pierces the building paper that is the ultimate barrier to stop water intrusion.
Now there is the Fasten Seal Furring nail. As a supervisor for a stucco contractor in California part of my responsibility was to find leaks, and during the heavy El Nino rains of the late 1990's there were plenty. I found many leaks that originated at a window, electrical box or just a crack in the stucco. The water would then run down the paper as it is supposed to, meeting thousands of entry points created by all the lath fasteners, on it's way down to the weep screed at the bottom of the wall. Some builders have attempted to address this issue by applying caulk individually to each fastener, which is time consuming and not particularly effective. Other builders continue to roll the dice and hope for the best. Now there is a solution. - The Fasten Seal self sealing furring nail.
- Kirk Anderson, Inventor