The Company
After years of studying the damage caused by major weather and seismic events to wood frame construction, researchers made the decision to develop a technology that could minimize damage and improve the survivability of buildings and the people who live in them. This was the impetus to form Climate, a company dedicated to building survivability. Climate has formulated a series of adhesive and sealant products that have demonstrated in years-long testing to increase wood frame building integrity by dramatic degrees. Testing has shown that a wall panel assembled with Climate adhesive can withstand up to four times the dynamic load of a panel constructed with nails only.
Based in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Climate provides these ready-to-use products and responsive customer support while it continues to conduct research into the ability of adhesives and sealants to transform modern-day building construction. Climate products are formulated and manufactured in the U.S.A.
Why an Adhesive?
Light wood frame buildings make up 90% of all residential structures in North America. These buildings are based on a wood frame structure and exterior sheathing (integument) of plywood or OSB board. The framing members are attached to each other by large 16d nails. The exterior integument is attached to the structural framing with a large number of smaller nails, 6d or 8d. This assembly forms a continuous shell from the peak to the foundation.
When the building is at rest, this structure is fairly durable. However, violent winds and earthquakes apply forces that most residential buildings are not designed for. The structural integrity of such a building is totally dependent on thousands of small nails spaced six to twelve inches apart.
High-velocity wind is often violently fluctuating and distributes variable loads over the surface sheathing. Where such forces are concentrated, nails can begin to pull out or shear off.
In an engineered building it is necessary to avoid concentrations of energy and to provide wide load paths from the peak of the roof to the walls, and then to the foundation where the energy can be safely dissipated into the ground.
Cyclic forces tend to loosen nail connections. Once nails pull out, they don’t go back in. Point loading along the load path often results in catastrophic failure. A 6d nail seldom holds more than 250 pounds of pull-out force. One foot of 2x4 framing with three 6d nails can withstand 750 pounds of pullout force. This is where adhesives can significantly reinforce the framing of plywood assembly. A twelve-inch bead of elastomeric adhesive with a 300 PSI shear strength can offer 3600 pounds per linear foot to such an assembly. Add 750 pounds of strength from three nails and the result is a 4350-pound-per-linear-foot assembly. The adhesive’s elastomeric properties accommodate cyclic forces seen in wind and seismic events.
Uniform bonds over the external surfaces of the framing lumber absorb energy and offer a wider and more uniform load path from the roof to the foundation.
We now have empirical evidence that certain elastomeric adhesives added to the nailing schedules prescribed by the Uniform Building Code can increase the structural integrity of a house by 200 to 300 %. This would be at a cost of pennies per square foot.