Is Osb Good For Roof

While plywood remains a good and viable option the fact remains that osb is now the preferred choice.

Is osb good for roof. A homeowner recently wrote and asked me the following regarding osb roof decking. Suitability for roof sheathing. Both plywood and osb are used for sheathing roofs walls and subfloors they work equally well for these uses are just as easy to drill into and have equivalent ability to hold nails. Osb is widely used as roof decking material.

One of the nice things about plywood is the variety of options you can buy. Oriented strand board commonly referred to as osb is a type of engineered lumber similar to particle board formed by adding adhesives and then compressing layers of wood strands. Osb is now used for about 70 percent of all floor wall and roof sheathing in north america. When the grade stamp is covered by roofing the building inspector will not be able to confirm that the correct osb roofing panel was used.

However osb is generally considered less resistant to water it swells in thickness when exposed to moisture and some people prefer plywood for roofs and subfloors. Sheets of 7 16 inch thick with no edge support can be used in an area where the snow load is 30 pounds per square foot. New homes will usually see a few rainfalls before a roof is on and as noted above osb doesn t handle moisture well. Typical types of wood used for roof sheathing are oriented strand board known as osb and plywood the most popular being osb.

Despite its common use as such we don t recommend using osb for subfloors but that s really just for aesthetic reasons. With edge support and the same snow load 3 8 inch osb can be used. But still no one will blame you if you choose plywood over osb. Up until 2000 plywood held the majority of the market for wall roof and floor sheathing when it was surpassed by osb which as of 2018 held about 75 of the market share.

In 2001 oriented strand board surpassed plywood in terms of square footage produced. It has been estimated that osb has a stronghold of of the market share mainly because it s the more affordable option. Building codes the engineered wood association architects and most builders rate plywood and oriented strand board obs sheathing equal in strength and durability.