Is Osb Plywood Good For Roofing

But still no one will blame you if you choose plywood over osb.

Is osb plywood good for roofing.

Plywood holds nails or staples much better. There is no question that plywood is better then osb. Despite its common use as such we don t recommend using osb for subfloors but that s really just for aesthetic reasons. University of massachusetts meets most building codes for roof and wall sheathing.

They work equally well for these uses are just as easy to drill into and have equivalent ability to hold nails. With edge support and the same snow load 3 8 inch osb can be used. We form the layers by shredding wood and then joining them together with adhesive. Although oriented stranded board osb has similar uses to plywood it has a much coarser finish.

However with osb the layers are more cross oriented. Like particle board and mdf osb comes from wood shavings. Both plywood and osb are used for sheathing roofs walls and subfloors. Just make sure it is exterior grade ply so it will not delaminate if it gets wet.

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. Osb takes longer to get wet than plywood but also takes longer to dry out. 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. Plywood is better than osb for subfloors.

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. 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. 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.

It has been estimated that osb has a stronghold of of the market share mainly because it s the more affordable option. 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. When used as a roof sheathing this tendency to hold moisture means it can degrade faster than plywood when exposed to chronic leaks. 2x greater shear strength than similar sized plywood source.