Walls...

[Andrew Wayland]

I’m toying with the idea of adding walls to my new shed. (Comes down to cost...walls mean insulation too now...)

I was just considering pegboard or slat wall, but a plywood or OSB wall would arguably be more versatile than either offering, with cheaper and limitless accessories.

Does OSB have the same pull-out strength as plywood?

And for either, is 1/2” enough? Or is 3/4 preferred?

[Dave Seng]

The nail and screw holding capacity of OSB and plywood is roughly equal. If you're planning on hanging things from the wall, it's always best to make sure that fasteners for shelves, pegboard, french cleats, etc are hitting the studs behind the wall covering, but you can get away with hanging small/lightweight things attached directly to the plywood. If you forsee doing that, I'd opt for 3/4" or 5/8" just for the extra security.

[Michael W. Clark]

I used 1/2” OSB in my last shop and it was great. Any light item could be hung easily by screws in the plywood.

[Jim Becker]

I'm personally not a fan of the surface of OSB. After all it's designed to be covered with other materials in it's normal use purposes so it can be splintery and it sure do soak up paint big-time. I do like the the molded texture surface of the similar product that's part of the ZIP system or similar and it paints up well. It's a higher cost per sheet, of course. OSB or similar will certainly hold screws. In an ideal situation, I'd prefer the plywood over OSB or similar, but cost is a consideration. Unfortunately, anything in the building materials area is sometimes 100% higher in price over a year ago right now.

[Peter Kelly]

Screw-holding properties aside, 19/32" T1-11 plywood isn't much more expensive than 7/16" OSB and looks a whole lot nicer.

[james manutes]

Couple years ago , reworked the shop and bought 25 sheets of 7/16 OSB at $6.95 a sheet . It's over $22 now . Hard to swallow !

[Michael W. Clark]

Yes, OSB was $7/sheet when I did my walls. I wanted T1-11 but was way more extra the time. I put the OSB up with slick side toward shop. I used construction adhesive and a few screws but mostly 16 ga nails to secure it. I didn’t paint it, I suspect Kilz would cover the writing if you wanted to paint it.

[Jim Becker]

Screw-holding properties aside, 19/32" T1-11 plywood isn't much more expensive than 7/16" OSB and looks a whole lot nicer.

I agree...I have T1-11 in more than half of my shop (the "original" part) and while it's the thinner version, it looks really good.

[Jon Endres]

I did the interior of my shop (24x36 garage) with 7/16" OSB when it was $8 a sheet. Now it's $28 a sheet around here, and there is no way I'd spend that kind of money for it now. I did finish it with one coat each of Kilz Original (oil-based) primer and one coat of a generic flat white paint that I mixed up from several gallons of leftovers - so there's some eggshell, satin and flat in there, both interior and exterior, some ceiling paint, etc. but it's all latex and it's all white and it went on really nice.

Do over? I don't have really flat walls because my shop is all built from rough-sawn lumber. The OSB conformed to the irregularities pretty well (it's kind of bendy) but I really would lean heavily towards plywood walls at this point. Yes you can hang anything anywhere, but taking screws and nails out of OSB leaves a messy, splintery hole, and plywood is pretty clean in comparison.

[Jack Frederick]

I like the painted 1/2" plywood on my shop walls. Set vertically it is very simple to gain access back into the walls for the things I did not anticipate during the build. No adhesive, just screws

[Alex Zeller]

When I did the walls in my garage at my old house OSB was something like $5 a sheet if you bought more than 10. A couple years ago I built an interior wall in my basement at struggled to pay $14 a sheet. I still have a couple sheets left over. Who would of thought that they would be worth more than the 8 I used to make the wall. Personally I would just wait if possible before doing any construction. I'm not sure how far but it will come back down in price. It's going to be a balancing act between rising fuel prices and the roll out of the vaccine and businesses returning to normal.

[JOEL MONGEON]

Oh man that makes my wallet hurt!
With all the shortages of building materials I ended up using 1/2" Baltic Birch plywood as it was the only stuff I could find. Looks fantastic but ouch!

[Bill Dufour]

OSB is not nearly as water resistant as plywood. Builders here have stopped using osb for exterior walls and roofs. A shop with no walls is called a carport not a shop.
B il lD

[Andrew Wayland]

OSB is not nearly as water resistant as plywood. Builders here have stopped using osb for exterior walls and roofs. A shop with no walls is called a carport not a shop.
B il lD

I’ll clarify: we have exterior sheathing all set... but inside it’s just exposed studs. The “walls” I was referring to is for inside.

[Frank Pratt]

OSB is not nearly as water resistant as plywood. Builders here have stopped using osb for exterior walls and roofs. A shop with no walls is called a carport not a shop.
B il lD

Have you got a source for that? I pretty well keep up with current residential building technologies & have never heard of a trend back to plywood for exterior & roof sheathing. About the only places I've seen it used instead of OSB is where there is a shear wall assembly that calls for plywood.

More moisture resistance would have no advantage unless the sheathing was going to be left exposed to weather for months before drying in.