Is Osb Plywood Good For Roofing

It has been estimated that osb has a stronghold of of the market share mainly because it s the more affordable option.

Is osb plywood good for roofing. While plywood remains a good and viable option the fact remains that osb is now the preferred choice. We form the layers by shredding wood and then joining them together with adhesive. Osb takes longer to get wet than plywood but also takes longer to dry out. According to dmitry lipinskiy owner of roofing insights there is a 5 chance that older homes will need a completely new decking system when their roofs are repaired.

Typical types of wood used for roof sheathing are oriented strand board known as osb and plywood the most popular being osb. Use 5 8 inch c c pts grade for your overhangs and 5 8 inch cdx for the rest. Just make sure it is exterior grade ply so it will not delaminate if it gets wet. 2x greater shear strength than similar sized plywood source.

However with osb the layers are more cross oriented. Today you can find osb in thickness from 7 16 to 1 1 8 for different applications from roof wall subfloor i joists and everything between. 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. 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.

With edge support and the same snow load 3 8 inch osb can be used. But still no one will blame you if you choose plywood over osb. University of massachusetts meets most building codes for roof and wall sheathing. New homes will usually see a few rainfalls before a roof is on and as noted above osb doesn t handle moisture well.

When used as a roof sheathing this tendency to hold moisture means it can degrade faster than plywood when exposed to chronic leaks. Plywood is better than osb for subfloors. Although oriented stranded board osb has similar uses to plywood it has a much coarser finish. Plywood holds nails or staples much better.

Like particle board and mdf osb comes from wood shavings. Despite its common use as such we don t recommend using osb for subfloors but that s really just for aesthetic reasons. There is no question that plywood is better then osb. 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.