Across the country, states and municipalities are beginning to review and adopt the 2024 International Energy Conservation Code and ASHRAE 90.1-2022. While adoption will be gradual, these updates reflect a broader industry shift: buildings are expected to waste less energy while managing air and moisture more effectively. Getting real-world performance to comply with the code will require contractors to build assemblies with tighter continuity and pay greater attention to detail, particularly as it relates to coatings, sheathings, sealants and spray foam. This shift raises the importance of field execution, since small inconsistencies in transitions or detailing can now determine whether an assembly meets the latest codes.  

The Impact of New IECC and ASHRAE Updates on Contractors

Both ASHRAE 90.1-2022 and the 2024 IECC are published and available for adoption. Adoption will vary by region, but the direction is clear: expectations for tighter, more resilient building envelopes continue to rise as more municipalities move toward these standards into 2026. 

Both the IECC 2024 and ASHRAE 90.1-2022 increase expectations around three core areas that affect contractors’ work: 

Continuous Insulation

The 2024 IECC strengthens prescriptive CI requirements across additional climate zones to reduce thermal bridging. ASHRAE 90.1-2022 also increases minimum R-values for several wall types and clarifies how framing, fasteners, and transitions affect thermal performance. These changes specify that insulation must remain continuous even around framing irregularities and transitions. 

Air Leakage Control

More jurisdictions are expected to require blower-door testing or whole-building air leakage verification as they adopt these codes. The IECC tightens allowable leakage rates and emphasizes continuous air barrier assemblies. As a result, proper sealing around windows, penetrations, and cladding attachments will be even more important.  

Thermal Performance Expectations

ASHRAE 90.1-2022 raises minimum insulation levels and includes more explicit language on mitigating thermal bridging. This makes workmanship a larger part of meeting thermal targets, since gaps or unsealed joints can undermine the designed R-value of the assembly. 

Spray foam insulation will play a stronger role in meeting elevated R-value requirements, especially as assemblies must maintain consistent insulation levels across transitions and non-standard conditions. 

For many contractors, these changes do not require entirely new construction methods, but they do raise the consequences of small mistakes. Assemblies will need to be designed in a way that maintains continuity and protects the integrity of the air, moisture, and thermal layers.  

Photo: Amrize Building Envelope

Code-Compliant Building Envelope Materials

As the 2024 IECC and ASHRAE 90.1-2022 place more stringent emphasis on insulation and managed moisture, modern building envelope materials become crucial tools for ensuring assemblies perform as designed, not just on paper.  

Coatings and Insulation

Liquid-applied roof coatings applied over spray polyurethane foam create a durable, watertight surface. This benefit extends to new roofs, where fluid-applied coatings help protect the insulation below from UV exposure and support long-term envelope performance. Since both roof coatings and SPF are applied in monolithic layers, this negates seam and fastener penetrations that otherwise become weak points for air or moisture movement. 

Structural Sheathing

Beneath the exterior plane, structural sheathing that incorporates insulation forms the first continuous tier that control layers rely on. Structural insulated sheathing is a high-performance building system used for residential and light commercial construction. This provides a 4-in-1 solution with sheathing, insulation, R-value, air and water barriers all in one product. 

Sealants

For walls and transitions, sealants play a different but equally important role. The new codes assume that air barriers and thermal layers will be continuous across changes in plane, material, and system type. In practice, continuity depends on what happens at window perimeters, control joints, mechanical penetrations, cladding attachments, terminations, and interfaces between different assemblies. Properly selected and installed sealants help tie these details together so that the air and moisture control layers are not interrupted at the very points that are most vulnerable. 

Coatings and sealants also give contractors flexibility when dealing with irregular conditions. They help bridge the small field discrepancies that become more critical under tighter air leakage targets, without requiring changes to the overall wall design. While they cannot compensate for poor design or major installation errors, they can help protect areas where cutting and fitting other materials is more difficult. In this way, they support the intent of the newer IECC and ASHRAE requirements by helping create a more continuous, resilient building envelope without fundamentally changing how every wall or roof is built. 

Insulation

While spray foam and continuous insulation have dramatically improved air and moisture control, the quality of installation still determines performance. Even premium assemblies can fail blower-door verification if transition details are incomplete or inconsistent, which is why consistent sealing and detailing matter more under the new standards. 

Another ongoing concern is the perception that newer assemblies make buildings “too tight.” These issues are addressed through HVAC design rather than loosening the envelope. Still, they can create misunderstandings for homeowners or builders. 

Policy changes also influence adoption speed. For example, tax credits that helped incentivize continuous insulation were recently discontinued, slowing momentum in some regions. Builders often balance rising performance expectations with the realities of cost and labor availability.  

Why Using Sheathing, Coatings, Sealants, and Spray Foam Together Matters

As codes evolve, contractors are being asked to consider the building envelope as a system rather than a set of separate products. The latest IECC and ASHRAE standards emphasize that performance depends on how the air, thermal, and moisture layers interact across the entire assembly, not just on any single layer.

Together, these materials help maintain continuity across wall and ceiling layers under tighter code requirements. Spray foam and sheathing set a strong performance baseline, sealants keep that performance from breaking down at the edges, and coatings add durability and moisture protection over time.

Building for the Next Generation of Codes

As municipalities gradually adopt the 2024 IECC and ASHRAE 90.1-2022, contractors will continue shaping how well buildings perform for decades to come. Sheathing, coatings, sealants, and spray foam may not change the codes themselves, but they help reinforce tighter, more resilient assemblies that meet the intent of these standards.

By keeping up with material and installation practices specified by the latest codes, contractors can prepare confidently for the shift toward higher performance expectations in 2026 and beyond.