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Old 04-14-2010, 10:14 PM
whitetailhntr whitetailhntr is offline
 
Join Date: May 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 827rotax View Post
I have been framing for over 20 years and my own commercial framing business for 13. Price aside OSB is better. Straighter, more rigid, and IMO more resilant to weather. You can span OSB on floors up to 24" on center, let me see you do that with any plywood. Old school plywood with old school glue might have stood a chance. New world new glue, Fir and Spruce delaminates way faster than OSB. I have had no call backs with OSB installation, and could not even count how many with plywood. It literly delaminates and falls apart if left to the elements for any time. I have seen OSB sheathing lay around in the elements for years and it may swell a little over the prolonged time, but fir plywood would be 1/8' planneling. Keep in mind I install 130,000 ft/2 of the stuff per project (on the floor, thats 4500 sheets) and OSB was my choice in my own house and I recommend it to everyone else. As far as sizing most floors now are 19.2 joist spacing and require 3/4. If you are installing directly on to the joists at 16" OC then 5/8" would work, 3/4" just makes it that much more rigid of a floor. Either will work, installation is most important, lots of subfloor glue evenly applied to each joist and secure it right away to pull the sheathing into the joists. Now we can get into are screws better than nails argument.

Get your self a coil nailer and pound in 2.5" ardox nails it will never move.
X10.....Been framing houses for longer than i care to remember and what this gentleman is saying is the truth. Old schooll thinking That plywood is better than osb is an old wives tails. I Usually insist on Osb on the projects I do.I sure as heck won't use plywood on roofs or walls , ever. I get the ood floor to do with plywood but usually try to convince the customer to use osb. There is weather resistant osb floor sheating available now as well . It will weather up to 90 days without swelling. I've used it and its a very good products. Ditto on the lots of glue and ringed nails. 99% of the stuff we do is 3/4 as well...but hey what do we know we Only install 100 of thousands of square feet of the stuff ......
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