Rigidcoat saves the M-House

Facility Type: Residential

Location: Watertown, Wisconsin

Solutions: Roseburg's RigidCoat Water-Repellent Underlayment, RigidLam® LVL and RFPI® I-Joists

Surface and Panel Magazine has teamed up with architect John Vetter and interior designer Amy Caman to create a new expression of what is possible in residential construction. They are uniting the industry's finest materials and technology in new applications to demonstrate what is being called a residential research lab. The house, which is currently under construction in Watertown, Wisconsin (between Madison and Milwaukee), features products from a global list of industry leaders, including Roseburg.

RFPI Joists, RigidLam LVL and Roseburg's Rigidcoat subfloor underlayment were used exclusively for the mHouse's shell and core. Architect John Vetter could not have been happier about the use of Roseburg Products, as he has consistently specified them in his other projects. He insisted on the use of new Rigidcoat underlayment as an insurance policy against the summer rains of the Midwest.

As fate would have it, 12 inches of rain fell in a 13-day period as the mHouse subfloor construction began. Roseburg's Rigidcoat is produced with a water-repellant coating to protect the subfloor until the structure is enclosed. "This is the first time I've actually gotten to use this new product and it absolutely saved us," says Vetter. "OSB or any other unprotected underlayment would likely have been a disaster after two weeks of pounding rain. The subfloor seriously looks as good as the day it was installed."1