Ah, vapor barriers! I remember the
first time I decided to try and make a
house as airtight as I could. "We'll just
run poly continuously over the inside
of the outside walls and across the
ceiling. That way we'll get a vapor
barrier and an air barrier," I thought.
So simple in concept, such a pain in
practice. How do you get it on top of
load-bearing walls, through the joists
of a cantilevered overhang or the second
floor of a Cape Cod? Or through
the intersection of an interior partition
and an exterior wall? What about
recessed lights? On those first houses I
used a lot of caulk. Cases of caulk.
And even then