Osb Or Plywood For Roof Decking

Plywood used for roof decking is typically called sheathing and.

Osb or plywood for roof decking.

With edge support and the same snow load 3 8 inch osb can be used. 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. The most common materials for this are oriented strand board osb or plywood both formed of layers of wood bonded into a panel. 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.

When used as a roof sheathing this tendency to hold moisture means it can degrade faster than plywood when exposed to chronic leaks. Once the area is known divide by the area of a 4 8 sheet to find how much sheathing is needed. Because the adhesive and resin make it more difficult to absorb water osb is less likely to expand and contract with exposure to moisture. Typical types of wood used for roof sheathing are oriented strand board known as osb and plywood the most popular being osb.

They work equally well for these uses are just as easy to drill into and have equivalent ability to hold nails. Find the area of a roof. Lipinskiy says that both plywood and osb are sufficient but that he does prefer osb. 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.

While some people do prefer to go with traditional plywood many construction experts make the argument that osb is better for roofing. Plywood is made with an odd number of layers for optimal strength and performance. One of the nice things about plywood is the variety of options you can buy. 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.

Both plywood and osb are used for sheathing roofs walls and subfloors. Both plywood and osb will meet the code. 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. Performance over a long period of time.

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. Osb takes longer to get wet than plywood but also takes longer to dry out. 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. There is nothing wrong with plywood but for me personally we always go with the osb he says.

To find the amount of plywood needed to cover a roof start by finding the area of the roof.