Diffusion

Moisture Flow: Part 7 by John Tooley

Diffusion is the fourth mechanism of moisture movement. Diffusion is just

moisture in a vapor phase moving through materials, in the direction from more
to less. Vapor diffusion will transport moisture through permeable materials
without air flow.

Historically, vapor diffusion from inside to outside seems to be the one we are
most afraid of. But actually, it is less of a real concern than outside moisture.

Where understanding moisture diffusion really helps us, is in designing

foundations, walls, and roofs to be able to dry out. If there’s moisture inside a
wall and it needs to get out, the wall materials have to allow that to happen —
they have to allow diffusion. That’s why we have to learn about “permeance,” the
ability of materials to let moisture diffuse through them. In this section, we look at
the permeability of materials, and we look at how to put those materials together
into an assembly that is able to dry, by letting moisture diffuse in the direction
from more moisture to less moisture.

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Permeance of Materials

Permeance of materials is measured in “perms.” The lower the perm rating, the
greater the resistance of the material to vapor transmission. The perm rating
sometimes varies depending on the relative humidity of the air contacting the
material. Concrete block starts at about 0.5 perms, but the perm rating rises to 2
or 3 at 40% to 60% relative humidity. Kraft paper, used as a facing for insulation
batts, starts out at one perm, but increases toward almost 10 perms as the
humidity goes up. Kraft paper is a “smart vapor barrier” – it blocks more vapor
under dry conditions than it does under damp conditions, and it can allow drying
across the barrier in either direction, depending on the situation.

If we want to design walls for easy drying, it

helps to know the perm ratings of the materials
we’re using, and we want to be very careful
where we place the least permeable materials —
the materials with low perm ratings. Materials of
less than one perm (like vinyl wallpaper or poly)
are not recommended on the inside face of walls
except in severe cold climates, such as Canada
and the very far northern U.S. In “cold” climates
like the U.S. northern plains states, Kraft paper,
rated at one perm and up, makes sense as a
vapor retarder.

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Interior Vapor Barriers

If we don’t know the perm ratings of our materials and pay attention to what we’re
doing, we can install a low-perm material on our walls without thinking about it,
and end up with problems. Below is a basement wall insulated with fiberglass
blankets with poly facing. The basement wall can’t dry to the outside, because
the ground is usually at 100% relative humidity — it’s vapor-saturated. But this
wall can’t dry to the inside either, because the poly is much lower than one perm.
Very possibly, the fiberglass under this white poly will end up dripping wet.

The framed wall below has a radiant barrier product called “Fi-Foil” applied to the
studs. Fi-Foil is a foil material that comes in two varieties: a non-perforated type,
which has a very low perm rating, and a perforated type that is rated at 5 perms.
If we want this wall to be able to dry to the inside, we have to make sure we use
the high-perm perforated type. Otherwise, water that intrudes from the outside —
which we already know is the biggest concern — could end up trapped in the wall
and support mold and rot.

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Assemblies that Dry

In any home and any assembly that we design and

build, if the rate of drying exceeds the rate of wetting,
we’re not going to have a problem. So we want to
design our systems so that they have plenty of drying.

There are three steps to consider in a drying strategy.

The first step is to list all the materials from outside to
inside. What is the wall, or the foundation, or the ceiling or roof, made up of?

Step two is to identify which material has the greatest resistance to vapor flow.
Those numbers are available in published documents. The authoritative
reference is the “ASHRAE Handbook — Fundamentals,” available from
www.ashrae.org, the website of the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration
and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).

Then, step three is to declare a direction of drying — determine which way the
assembly will dry, recognizing that moisture moves from more to less and follows
the path of least resistance. Does it dry to the inside? Does it dry to the outside?
Or does it dry in both directions?

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Example Assemblies

Let’s take a look at some assemblies and consider how they will dry. Remember,
we start with the least permeable material, and work our way toward the air.

Wall section. Here’s a wall with cementitious clapboard siding. It has paint —
primed all sides. It has a house wrap, and then it has OSB. Then, working
towards the inside of the house, we have fiberglass insulation, gypsum
wallboard, and finally
latex paint. There’s no
poly vapor barrier any-
where in this wall.

So, the greatest

resistance to vapor flow
in this wall is the OSB,
with a perm rating of
one or less — it’s a
vapor retarder. This
wall will dry in two
directions: from the
OSB out and from the
OSB in. It’s a high
tolerant wall — if water
gets in, it has two ways
out.

Ceiling section. The ceiling with Kraft-faced batts can dry in two directions. Kraft
paper, a smart vapor barrier, lets vapor pass from the direction of more humid to
less humid, and the higher the humidity, the higher the permeability. This ceiling
design has high tolerance.

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Here are five foundation assemblies.

The slab at right has a poly vapor barrier

under it, so it can only dry inward. It can’t dry
down into the earth. We design our HVAC
system to take moisture out of the house, and
the slab dries upward if it gets wet.

The basement wall below that is insulated

with unfaced expanded polystyrene (EPS),
which allows drying to the inside. The
basement wall can’t dry to the outside soil,
because that is generally wetter than the wall,
and moisture moves from wet to dry. But if
we keep the interior air dry, this wall can dry
into the basement, and it’s a high-tolerance
assembly.

Below that is a basement finished with studs

with fiberglass batts, and drywall on the
inside. If there is no poly vapor barrier, this
wall can still dry to the inside, but it is not as
tolerant as the first wall. Below that we have
the same wall with a poly vapor barrier
applied to the studs. That is a low tolerance
assembly, because the poly blocks drying to
the inside.

Finally, we have a crawl space (below) The

inside is insulated with a foil-faced
polyisocyanurate foam board. The foil face is
a vapor barrier, so this wall can only dry
outwards, and only through the part that is
above grade. But this is a high tolerance wall.

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