What fasteners for 3/8" beaded plywood

[Justin Davis]

Not sure what fasteners to use for 3/8" beaded plywood. I will be attaching it directly to the 16" on center wall studs and furring strips on the ceiling. May put the furring strips 12" apart? It is primed and will be painted in the end. I was thinking of using my 15ga finish nailer and liquid nail on the backside or is there a better option?

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

I used 1/4" crown staples. They sink in far enough to fill, and hold a lot better than nails.

[Tom M King]

333088PowerGrab, and only a fastener if one is needed somewhere. I've used it on ceilings with a grid of 1x6s run out of MDF. Those MDF pieces are also held up with almost nothing but PowerGrab. Everyone likes it who sees those ceilings, including a couple of Architects. I used it in our dogroom, and walk-in closets in an addition on our house, as well as a number of places since then. I avoid sheetrock if at all possible. The walls in that picture are some sort of hardboard siding with a smooth finish.

I added the extra 1x under the crown molding to make the paint color transition easier to mask. I sprayed the walls before putting the crown up. Prepainted the bottom cove on the crown, and masked the crown at the intersection of the little cove an the upper part of the crown molding to spray the ceiling.

The most amount of time in that sort of job is the caulking. Use the fast drying caulking because it shrinks less. After I mask the walls, which have been painted, with lightweight plastic drape, I wipe the caulking off my finger on the plastic wall drape. Don't smear it out wider with your finger leaving ridges on the sides of the caulking. Wipe if off with your fingertip, and wipe the excess off your finger. You want the transitions on both sides of the caulking to make it all look like it's one piece. Keep a bucket of warm water to keep your fingers cleaned off during the caulking. I had those two Architects tell me I was the best finish carpenter they'd ever seen. What they didn't understand was that I was the best caulker they'd ever seen.

[Justin Davis]

Is PowerGrab that much better than liquid nail? When you did use a fastener, what did you use? The beaded ply is to finish out the inside of my daughters playhouse. I planned to put it on both the walls and ceiling but paint them different colors. If I figure out how to post a picture from my cellphone I'll post on up.
Thanks for the replies so far.

[Tom M King]

333090PowerGrab holds from the initial pressure and doesn't release easily, as long as the plywood is nice and flat to start with. You may have seen the commercial where a roommate sticks his buddy's hammer on the ceiling with PowerGrab. If it has a bow or corner that wants to pull away from the PowerGrab, I shot a 7/16" crown 2" leg staple in it there. I built this coffered ceiling with nothing but MDF and Powergrab. Coffers are about 4x5 feet. Raised panel tapers are separate pieces.

[Justin Davis]

So it sounds like its best to use a staple with construction adhesive versus any type of finish nail. Does it matter if it's a 1/2" or 1/4" wide crown staple? I have a narrow crown stapler already.

[Tom M King]

1/4" crown should be fine. I used PowerGrab so I could use the fewest possible fasteners. If the plywood is fairly flat, press it into a bead of PG on each stud, and it's not coming back down without tearing the plywood apart after it dries even if it has no mechanical fasteners. A finish nail almost would be like putting nothing in it, if the finish nail is set much at all, and then you have a hole to have to fill and sand.

[Justin Davis]

Only possible issue with 1/4" staples is the length. The longest I can use is 1-1/2". I think that should be fine?

[Tom Ewell]

1-1/2 would be fine using a normal fastening schedule even without the powergrab .