TL;DR
A rainscreen is a wall-cladding strategy that treats the siding as a first defense only, backing it with a ventilated cavity and a water-resistive barrier that together drain and dry whatever moisture penetrates. The assembly has four working parts: cladding, air gap, drainage plane, and flashed openings at top and bottom.
What it means
A rainscreen is a wall-cladding strategy that treats the siding as a first defense only, backing it with a ventilated cavity and a water-resistive barrier that together drain and dry whatever moisture penetrates. The assembly has four working parts: cladding, air gap, drainage plane, and flashed openings at top and bottom. Long standard on commercial facades and in the rainy Pacific Northwest, it is the reason properly detailed walls survive wind-driven rain that would rot a face-sealed assembly.
Where it sits in the glossary
Rainscreen 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.
ProFix tools that touch this term
See also
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