TL;DR
Housewrap is the synthetic water-resistive barrier stapled or cap-nailed over wall sheathing before siding, a spun or woven polyolefin sheet that blocks liquid water driven past the cladding while letting interior water vapor diffuse out. Building codes require a water-resistive barrier behind most claddings, and brands like Tyvek and Typar satisfy it when seams are taped and laps shed water shingle-style.
What it means
Housewrap is the synthetic water-resistive barrier stapled or cap-nailed over wall sheathing before siding, a spun or woven polyolefin sheet that blocks liquid water driven past the cladding while letting interior water vapor diffuse out. Building codes require a water-resistive barrier behind most claddings, and brands like Tyvek and Typar satisfy it when seams are taped and laps shed water shingle-style. Its weak points are unsealed penetrations and reverse laps, which funnel leaks into sheathing where they stay hidden for years.
Where it sits in the glossary
Housewrap is part of the Trade jargon group inside the ProFix Directory glossary. Browse every term in this category from the glossary index.
Why Ohio homeowners should know it
This is a term Ohio homeowners encounter when reading contractor quotes, hiring paperwork, or inspection reports. Understanding it well enough to ask one good follow-up question is usually all the protection a homeowner needs.
ProFix Directory keeps definitions short on the index page and saves the longer context — Ohio-specific rules, where the term comes from, and which ProFix tools touch it — for these per-term pages so the term is easy to cite and easy to share.
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See also
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