Air barrier inspections in Ontario - Building Code changes.

Are you a contractor, building new homes or cottages in Ontario? Are you calling your local building inspector for an air barrier inspection?  Your weather barrier/house-wrap needs to be inspected if it is serving as the air barrier. At the time of my writing this article, many jurisdictions in Ontario are NOT sending inspectors to job sites for a separate air-barrier inspection, as prescribed by the updated code. Or worse, the contractors don't know to call, and then are stuck with a delay in construction to sort out their air barrier issue. The time is quickly arriving where this will be common, but it has taken the whole of 2012 for some building dept's to get this code change enforced. It will probably take a few more years for it to trickle down to builders.

For 2012 and beyond, the location(s) of the air barrier in the building envelope are under heavy scrutiny by the Ontario Building Code. The construction drawings need to specify where, the air barrier is located and that it is continuous.

This gets confusing for some people outside of the building trades (and for many within the trades too), because products like Tyvek/Typar are often installed on the outside of the building, but if covered up with siding, cannot be inspected by the building official. If the builder cannot or will not remove the siding for inspection, the interior polyethylene sheets(vapour barrier) will be considered the air barrier instead, and will need to be completely sealed (acoustical caulking, etc).  

The responsibility is on the general contractor to make sure the air barrier gets inspected before it is covered, ensure a continuous air barrier from top to bottom of the building.