Roof Plywood Or Osb

It is generally believed that osb is cheaper than plywood.

Roof plywood or osb.

However you might find that osb can better suit your needs than plywood for the roof. It s a top choice because of its characteristic wherein it expands evenly when exposed to water unlike osb wherein only the edges expand. It becomes soft and weak when it delaminates. Despite its common use as such we don t recommend using osb for subfloors but that s really just for aesthetic reasons.

Both cdx plywood and osb tend to come in standard sheets of four foot by eight foot 4 8. Because of this manufacturing process osb is at least half the cost of cdx plywood. Thankfully there are osb materials today that are designed to be moisture resistant. 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.

For plywood it is like 5 to 10 more expensive. Both osb and plywood absolutely hate water lipinskiy mentions going on to say that the most important part regardless of which decking option you choose is that all penetration points on a roof are sealed. 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. Find the area of a roof.

Osb boasts a more consistent density. Plywood is made out of laminated sheets of veneer. Osb panels can be manufactured in lengths up to 16 feet or sometimes even higher while plywood is generally limited to 8 to 10 feet. New homes will usually see a few rainfalls before a roof is on and as noted above osb doesn t handle moisture well.

Talking about plywood or osb for roofing you cannot miss the information of the cost. Earlier types of osb were known as waferboard which is now considered a sub standard version of oriented stand board. While a sheet of plywood might be 5 to 7 plies thick a sheet of osb is made from as many as 50 strand layers packed and compressed into the same thickness. A few other downsides to plywood.

It is true as the price of every osb board is around 15 20 per sheet 4 8 sizes. When it gets wet the sheathing could swell and thicken up because of the moisture. This is one of the reasons why some people prefer using plywood for their roof or subfloor. Plywood is better than osb for subfloors.

Unfortunately an osb is less resistant to water compared to plywood. Because of its construction some manufacturers actually make larger sheets of osb. Osb is made by combining glue resin and wood chips and pressing them into the shape of a plywood sheet then baking everything together.