The one surface nobody can reach again
Once the walls stand, the bottom of the plate is gone for the life of the house. Why we roll Snap-Plate Mold Defender on the deck at layout, and why three inches wide of the line matters.
There is one surface on every wood-framed house that gets exactly one chance. The bottom of the plate touches the deck the moment the wall is stood, and nobody sees it again until the drywall comes off for a reason nobody wanted. Water that gets under a plate sits there. Eventually the homeowner smells it.
That is the whole reason Snap-Plate Mold Defender exists, and the reason it goes on at layout rather than at the end of the job.
What the framer actually does
Snap your lines as usual. Nothing about layout changes. Then roll the product three inches wide of the line, coat the bottom of each plate while it is still lying on the deck, and stand the walls. It is a single application with a roller or a sprayer. On a typical house it is about an hour, and the walls go vertical on the same schedule they were going to anyway.
The three inches is not decoration. The extra width past the plate is what interrupts horizontal moisture movement into the plate from the deck around it. Coat only the footprint and water still has a path in from the side.
What is in the product
Snap-Plate Mold Defender is a water repellent, a mildewcide and a mold defender in one coat, tested to ASTM G21, the standard for resistance of synthetic materials to fungi. It ships in 1, 5 and 55 gallon sizes, so a framer can carry what a day needs and a truss plant can run it off a drum.
“It's an hour on a house. It's the one thing on the job the buyer will never see, and the one thing I'd never skip.”
Who is already doing it
NorCal Lumber and West Coast Framing use it on every project they build together, and prefabricated wall systems from NorCal ship with the plates already treated. Builders on the Ben Franklin Award list roll it under every plate as one of the three things the award asks for.
The full step-by-step is on the How it works page, and the product page has the specs and sizes. If you would rather see it on a deck, call and we will put you in touch with a framer who is doing it this week.
