What is "wrapping"?

Housewrap.

How does one wrap before the walls are placed?

You wrap the wall sections before you put them up. Trouble is this leaves all kinds of seams. Not a good practice.

That was kind of where i was going worthy, and I should have stated wrap properly.

Pretty much what my builder said. He frames, checking for plumb and square as he goes and wraps when everything is in place. From watching what is going on around me, I am very pleased to have a GC who does his own framing. One of the houses going up in our 8-house development is placing already wrapped walls (using a crane). It's an interesting juxtaposition. Similarly sized houses; ours was entirely framed (basement and main level) in about 2-weeks. After the crane sat on the site for 1.5 weeks (I think I'd have been burning at the idea of paying rent on a piece of equipment that wasn't doing anything!) walls started being placed and they were already wrapped. According to my builder it's a "newer" and some believe "faster" way to do things. He said he's holding on to the old way b/c he believes the quality is better; that you can make adjustments before things are wrapped, but once wrapped, no adjustments can be made. I was just curious what the thoughts and experiences of those on this board might be, hence the post. I'm still curious to learn of any advantages (perceived or otherwise) of putting the housewrap on first. I'm truly enjoying learning new things as part of our building process! Thanks to all who choose to participate in the discussion!

One of the houses going up in our 8-house development is placing already wrapped walls (using a crane)

Is that a modular house?

cpartist -- Nope, a custom home on a $200k lot! Prominent builder w/solid reputation.

cski13: "After the crane sat on the site for 1.5 weeks...walls started being placed and they were already
wrapped."

Structural Insulated Panels being set in place. Source: Buildipedia

Sounds like some sort of panelized wall system. Structural insulated panels (SIPS) perhaps? Otherwise, I can't imagine carpenters building walls all over the place and waiting a week and half to have them hoisted into place. Covering the corners with generously wide sheets of properly lapped wrap on site would be acceptable.

I'll try to take a picture. They're putting up "stick" framing that's wrapped in Tyvek. Apparently they built the panels on the floor of the basement. There are enough walls up now that I'm not sure the photo will capture what caught my eye initially, but we'll see.

Sorry for the delay...life got in the way! =) Here's the photo -- and as you can see, it's just "regular" framing, no SIPS, the only difference being that the walls are put into place already wrapped.

Forgive my ignorance, but shouldn't the corners be wrapped?

I assume the loose Tyvek seen on one side of each corner will be wrapped around the corner.

There is nothing unusual about this technique. Contractors use different means and methods of construction to achieve the same result. To me it seems wasted on Tyvek HomeWrap; it would work better with Tyvek Fluid Applied WB.

Still seems like an uneconomic use of equipment to me. The way I've had it done is to put the housewrap roll on a long piece of dimensional lumberand walk around the house with it as another labourer tacks it down as they go. For the second floor, we've used the bricklayer's scaffolds--one wall at a time. Or even just have the bricklayers do it. Nice to see your builder covers the gables too; sometimes, builders don't get the importance of covering them.

This is a neighbor's house. The crane has been onsite for 5- weeks and from the looks of it will be there for another week or two. My builder did wrap the gables, but his approach to framing is the more traditional one, where the house gets wrapped after the framing is complete. I was just wondering why people are beginning to do it this other way -- there must be a reason -- I just don't know what it is, which is why I brought it up here.