Osb Or Plywood For Roof Decking

Up until 2000 plywood held the majority of the market for wall roof and floor sheathing when it was surpassed by osb which as of 2018 held about 75 of the market share.

Osb or plywood for roof decking. Once the area is known divide by the area of a 4 8 sheet to find how much sheathing is needed. Plywood on the other hand is made with thin sheets of wood that have been cut from a spinning log then glued together with the grain laid out in alternating directions to maximise strength. The most common materials for this are oriented strand board osb or plywood both formed of layers of wood bonded into a panel. They work equally well for these uses are just as easy to drill into and have equivalent ability to hold nails.

Both plywood and osb are used for sheathing roofs walls and subfloors. While some people do prefer to go with traditional plywood many construction experts make the argument that osb is better for roofing. Osb takes longer to get wet than plywood but also takes longer to dry out. When used as a roof sheathing this tendency to hold moisture means it can degrade faster than plywood when exposed to chronic leaks.

Sheets of 7 16 inch thick with no edge support can be used in an area where the snow load is 30 pounds per square foot. One of the nice things about plywood is the variety of options you can buy. However osb is generally considered less resistant to water it swells in thickness when exposed to moisture and some people prefer plywood for roofs and subfloors. To find the amount of plywood needed to cover a roof start by finding the area of the roof.

Plywood is made with an odd number of layers for optimal strength and performance. Multiply the length of the roof in feet by the width of the roof in feet to find the area of the roof in square feet. Oriented strand board isn t plywood nor is it a type of particleboard fiberboard or wafer board and although it is a newcomer to a plywood dominated market its use for exterior sheathing is. Typical types of wood used for roof sheathing are oriented strand board known as osb and plywood the most popular being osb.

As a homeowner if you find yourself in this position know that when you install a new decking system you will have to decide between using plywood or osb. With edge support and the same snow load 3 8 inch osb can be used. Find the area of a roof. There is nothing wrong with plywood but for me personally we always go with the osb he says.

Both plywood and osb will meet the code. Because the adhesive and resin make it more difficult to absorb water osb is less likely to expand and contract with exposure to moisture. When osb does get wet it also tends to swell along the edges and those edges stay swollen even after the material has dried out. Plywood used for roof decking is typically called sheathing and.

Osb is made of small and fairly rectangular shaped wood chips from small resinous trees which are bonded into a panel form with wax and synthetic resin.