(Contrary to what some may claim, this means that Tyvek is not a vapor barrier.) DuPont reports a moisture vapor permeance of 58 perms for HomeWrap, which is very breathable as far as hard structure house wraps go. As house wrap, the material must weatherproof an exterior without trapping excessive moisture in the walls. It has microscopic pores that are permeable to vapor. I switched it out for a seemingly more robust Tyvek-brand sheet in Erwin, Tennessee, and fared just fine for the rest of my hike. That said, on my own soggy, northbound AT hike, the off-brand variety I used as a groundcloth started to soak through during the first few hundred miles. Unlike nylon, Tyvek won’t stretch or otherwise perform differently when wet. This clever experiment corroborates my experience. For the vast majority of the wet nights I’ve endured with Tyvek, I haven’t noticed any issues. The consensus among its devotees is that it’s waterproof enough. Still, backpackers have been sleeping on the stuff for decades. Water-resistance comes as a benefit of Tyvek’s composition and polyethylene’s natural properties, rather than the result of any sort of coating or treatment. Strictly speaking, even hard structure Tyvek is classified only as water-resistant when water exposure is constant, according to the official Tyvek user’s manual. Like any good question, this has been the subject of vigorous debate on the Internet. It’s used for wearable Tyvek products – such as the disposable coveralls I had to wear for a job that involved stirring sewage (fun!) – among many other random things like archival storage and kite making.Ī veritable off-brand Tyvek slumber party in the Utah desert, circa 2013. However, it’s also significantly less resistant to tearing, puncture, and water. It’s more breathable, more malleable, lighter by at least a half ounce per square yard, less noisy, and softer to the touch. “Soft structure” varieties of Tyvek, most commonly Type 1443R, have drawn the ire of many backpackers expecting the former variety, although some still prefer soft structure for bivy sacks and other projects. (Tyvek CommercialWrap, at 2.7oz per square yard, is the beefiest of the family and is very hard to find in small quantities.) A Lighter Alternative According to DuPont, HomeWrap weighs 1.8oz per square yard. Before it’s broken in, it should be stiff like paper and feel plasticky to the touch, rather than fabric-like. The Good Stuffįor the applications discussed here, unless otherwise mentioned, you probably want standard “hard structure” Tyvek HomeWrap or a similar brand of construction-grade, non-woven polyethylene wrap. It’s fully recyclable, although whether or not it can be processed along with other plastics may depend on where you live. This accounts for some of its specific properties. After being spun into strands, the material is not woven but rather layered randomly and then bonded by pressure and high heat. Researchers at DuPont discovered its ability to be turned into a plasticky fluff by accident in the 1950s. Get ready to have your most pressing high-density polyethylene-related questions answered. This thru-hiker’s guide to Tyvek will detail some of the material’s most practical and imaginative applications. And as many creative souls have long been proving on the Internet, using Tyvek as a groundcloth is only the very beginning. Lightweight backpacking has a long and successful tradition of repurposing random stuff that happens to outperform existing manufactured gear. The crinkly, white priority mail envelopes from the USPS? Tyvek! Race bibs? Concert bracelets? (Remember concerts?) Those “world’s thinnest” and “world’s strongest” wallets? Whenever the world needs something cheap, rainproof, lightweight, and durable, Tyvek is there. Those hooded, hazmat-esque garments that have made a fashionable appearance during COVID times? Tyvek. It’s that white, papery stuff you’ve probably seen on the sides of unfinished buildings – though its all-around bad-assery is deployed seemingly everywhere. Tyvek is best known as a weatherproof house wrap. “Cowboy camping” with Tyvek on Vermont’s Long Trail.
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