Plywood Decking: Ouch!

[Carroll Courtney]

Its been few yrs since I purchase some cheap ole 1/2 plywood decking to do little roof repair but dang! What has happened, yea I see the OSB,which is cheaper but its like the lumber gods are directing us to buy OSB.Guess there is an abundance of chips from these tree companys that turns them into chips in back of there trucks after taking a tree down. Things has change over yrs

[Bradley Gray]

CDX is not worth using these days - too many voids, not flat, not square........

[Jim Becker]

Many builders and roofers have moved to the ZIP system which is essentially Advantec type OSB and much more durable relative to moisture than either plywood or regular OSB. The quality on CDX as was mentioned is nothing to write home about these days, either.

[Frank Pratt]

Many builders and roofers have moved to the ZIP system which is essentially Advantec type OSB and much more durable relative to moisture than either plywood or regular OSB. The quality on CDX as was mentioned is nothing to write home about these days, either.

Advantec has great sheathing & subfloor systems & they've done a very good job of educating & marketing. If I build another house I'd sure consider their products.

[John K Jordan]

Its been few yrs since I purchase some cheap ole 1/2 plywood decking to do little roof repair but dang! What has happened, yea I see the OSB,which is cheaper but its like the lumber gods are directing us to buy OSB.Guess there is an abundance of chips from these tree companys that turns them into chips in back of there trucks after taking a tree down. Things has change over yrs

Around here they clear cut forests and chop the trees into chips for OSB and such. They can use trees too small for lumber. I regularly see long trains of railroad cars full of chips on a siding nearby, heaped high enough to see them from the road.

I prefer good OSB instead of plywood for roofing.

[Lee Schierer]

I hate OSB, it doesn't hold nails well. It fails if it gets wet after being on a roof for a couple of years. I'll stick with plywood on my roofs.

[Alex Zeller]

Around here they clear cut forests and chop the trees into chips for OSB and such. They can use trees too small for lumber. I regularly see long trains of railroad cars full of chips on a siding nearby, heaped high enough to see them from the road.

I prefer good OSB instead of plywood for roofing.

Not trying to get political but that's a shame. Parts of a tree need to be left in the forest to rot and keep the soil healthy. Around here they use the chips in a electrical power plant. They don't even allow them to dry first so they don't even produce the amount of heat they could.

Advantec really changed the way people look at OSB. Before it was that stuff that would fall apart if a drop of water hits it. Now it'll last for years in the elements without any further protection. I haven't had as good of luck with other brands that compete with Advantec though. The last few sheets I got from Lowes were warped pretty bad. Once nailed and glued to joists they aren't going anywhere but it's kind of a pain to get the tongue and groove together.

[Richard Coers]

Its been few yrs since I purchase some cheap ole 1/2 plywood decking to do little roof repair but dang! What has happened, yea I see the OSB,which is cheaper but its like the lumber gods are directing us to buy OSB.Guess there is an abundance of chips from these tree companys that turns them into chips in back of there trucks after taking a tree down. Things has change over yrs

They certainly don't used arborist tree trimming chips. There is no bark or leaves in OSB. As long as you don't mind voids and adhesive failure between layers, then plywood is the way to go. The old plywood roof decking on my 1958 ranch sounded like popcorn when I replaced the roof the last time in 1999. I replace the sheeting on the whole roof in OSB and it is in great shape. Replaced the roof after hail damage last year. At 67, I hired this one done!

[Mike Cutler]

I hate OSB, it doesn't hold nails well. It fails if it gets wet after being on a roof for a couple of years. I'll stick with plywood on my roofs.

Lee
I'm with you on this one. I'm not a big fan of OSB.

[Jim Becker]

Advantec has great sheathing & subfloor systems & they've done a very good job of educating & marketing. If I build another house I'd sure consider their products.

The Zip system product is pretty impressive...my roofer friend used it to redeck an area that had to be replaced because of water damage. I've been using the scraps to build birdhouses that I suspect will last "forever". LOL

[Andrew Hughes]

I used to work with a couple carpenters that would have a fit every time I used the word roof deck. They insisted there was no deck on the roof. I liked to point out all the high nail heads and suggest they come back on roof and hit them down with their purses.
Aww those were the days

[Andy D Jones]

My home is a tract house built by DR Horton 27 years ago. Lots of corners cut (don't get me started on electrical issues!), but the upstairs sub-floors, roof decking and sheathing are all OSB, and have held up very well.

I also recently purchased 3/4" T&G OSB sheets to add some decking over the ceiling joists above the garage, for more storage. I purchased it from Home Depot. It was smooth on one side, and not warped, with clean T&G edges. I had to rip them into 2'x8' strips to get them through the pull-down attic stairway into the attic.

OSB allows more of any size tree to be used efficiently. I'm not for clear-cutting natural forests, but getting the most out of every tree means fewer trees have to be cut to get the material.

Finally, the burning of wood chips for fuel is all about efficiency. If the energy/time/expense in drying the chips is not returned, with profit, when they are burned dry, then it is not worth drying them, and better to burn them "wet".

-- Andy - Arlington TX

[Wayne Cannon]

It's been a couple of decades now, but local mills here (USA West Coast) could not compete with Japanese factory ships sitting just off our coast, chipping lumber (fir) into OSB, and "shipping" it back into the U.S. market. Most of the region's mills making plywood, etc., are now closed.

Lumber prices here skyrocketed at the time; but I don't know which happened first.

The World order has changed since. I don't know what the current situation is.

[Neil Gaskin]

We've switched pretty much exclusively to zip panel for sheathing. I've always been happy with Advantech. I do have slight concern about relying on tape and the coating with no other barrier given what I've seen over the years when siding and trim is not maintained. Time will tell.

[Jim Becker]

My understanding is that if the ZIP system tape is done properly, it and the coating (which is impressive in its own light) essentially does the same job, but much better, as the wraps which is to reduce and/or eliminate direct air infiltration. Taping can be a bit labor intensive to do it correctly, but the end result is very good.