Is Osb Plywood Good For Roofing

Like particle board and mdf osb comes from wood shavings.

Is osb plywood good for roofing.

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. Typical types of wood used for roof sheathing are oriented strand board known as osb and plywood the most popular being osb. 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. When used as a roof sheathing this tendency to hold moisture means it can degrade faster than plywood when exposed to chronic leaks.

Both plywood and osb are used for sheathing roofs walls and subfloors. 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. With edge support and the same snow load 3 8 inch osb can be used. They work equally well for these uses are just as easy to drill into and have equivalent ability to hold nails.

There is no question that plywood is better then osb. Plywood holds nails or staples much better. University of massachusetts meets most building codes for roof and wall sheathing. However with osb the layers are more cross oriented.

Although oriented stranded board osb has similar uses to plywood it has a much coarser finish. 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. Just make sure it is exterior grade ply so it will not delaminate if it gets wet. Despite its common use as such we don t recommend using osb for subfloors but that s really just for aesthetic reasons.

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. While plywood remains a good and viable option the fact remains that osb is now the preferred choice. New homes will usually see a few rainfalls before a roof is on and as noted above osb doesn t handle moisture well. 2x greater shear strength than similar sized plywood source.

But still no one will blame you if you choose plywood over osb. It has been estimated that osb has a stronghold of of the market share mainly because it s the more affordable option. We form the layers by shredding wood and then joining them together with adhesive. Use 5 8 inch c c pts grade for your overhangs and 5 8 inch cdx for the rest.