Osb Vs Plywood Roof Sheathing

For a typical 2 400 sq.

Osb vs plywood roof sheathing.

Building codes the engineered wood association architects and most builders rate plywood and oriented strand board obs sheathing equal in strength and durability. Home osb is about 700 less expensive compared with plywood if used as the subfloor sheathing and roof decking. Osb is cheaper than plywood by about 3 to 5 per panel. In fact recent price quotes from denver boston and atlanta put 7 16 inch osb 3 00 to as much as 5 00 per sheet lower than 1 2 inch cdx plywood.

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. That is why osb is sometimes used to secure houses when a hurricane draws near. It is true as the price of every osb board is around 15 20 per sheet 4 8 sizes. Installing either sheathing over a 500 square foot area would cost roughly 160in material for plywood and 100for osb.

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. Osb is much more waterproof than plywood and cdx plywood. University of massachusetts meets most building codes for roof and wall sheathing. Osb boasts a more consistent density.

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. 2x greater shear strength than similar sized plywood source. Osb is now used for about 70 percent of all floor wall and roof sheathing in north america. The glue and resin that is mixed in with the wood chips makes it much less permeable so osb holds up longer in harsher conditions.

Talking about plywood or osb for roofing you cannot miss the information of the cost. It is generally believed that osb is cheaper than plywood. A 4x8 foot sheet of construction grade plywood costs roughly 10a sheet while the same size sheet of osb costs only 6a sheet. Both cost about the same to install 70an hour for a carpenter.

In 2001 oriented strand board surpassed plywood in terms of square footage produced. Osb has earned its reputation as a low cost substitute for plywood.