Continuing on with the history of the cabin build… After the roof joists were up, it seems that the next job up would be getting that roof sheathed. But there were other things that needed tackling and, quite frankly, I wasn't looking forward to that aspect of the job.
Now not every joist was done. The last few on the south side, next to the porch and above the deck, were still off. I'm a little fuzzy on why, (this is a year and a half later) but I think I needed material. But onwards and upwards. So the next big job tackled was the weather membrane.
You can think of a weather membrane as a Gortex jacket for the building. The most common one, and the one I used, is Tyvek. Now a weather membrane is designed to keep moisture away from the wood, so in that case its like the rain shedding properties of Gortex. But like Gortex it has a breathability to it, allowing water vapour to escape. So any moisture that does make it into the wooden shell escapes through the Tyvek. It is also windproof, helping to keep the cold out.
Tyvek comes on rolls, and is stapled onto the sheathing. So you wrap the building in Tyvek, stapling it as you go. And because it is intended to be a complete barrier, you tape the seams, any holes, and the edges.
There were still pieces of sheathing added to the gable walls before this job could be complete. And the Tyvek needs to be secured and covered. You might have noticed that we Tyvek'd the walls before raising them, which is much easier than when they're vertical. But because winter happened and the Tyvek was left exposed the wind ripped our Tyvek off. Staples do not provide much holding power.
Again, much of construction is about protecting the wood and materials. So you don't just slap siding against the Tyvek. Moisture would get behind that siding and eventually destroy it. So before the siding goes on you put strapping over it. The strapping are strips of wood that follow along the studs (and around windows and door openings). This creates a gap between the siding and the weather barrier. This strapping is open at the top and the bottom, so that any moisture that does get behind the siding can drain out.
Some where along this process I also managed to get the remainder of the roof joists up, and figure out the joists for the porch and get them on. And once the cabin had been wrapped (missed the opportunity to say "once we'd wrapped up this job", or did I?) It was time to tackle sheathing the roof.