I am entering this question again because I believe I put it in the wrong forum berfore. I am in the process of building a couple of 700 s.f. cottages for rental. I plan to use 5/8 stained plywood on the exterior with battens. Inside I though I would use plywood with polyshades finish. I am looking for suggestions to create some interest with the plywood. Is there an alternative to the ply that would have a similar cost but more interest?
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700 square foot is a small place.......you're making it look even smaller.....use drywall, paint it light and use cathedral trusses at least in the living area. if you're going to go to the trouble of building the things make them look good........ and you can rent them for more money.
Exterior use t-111....it's cheap and if you trim it with cedar 1x4s it don't look to bad.
Danny,
I was going to recomend using the T-111 inside as a wainscotting. I`ve used this several times in the past when finishing basements. It`s relatively inexpensive, and can take a beating, which is what homeowners request in a childrens playroom and what you might apreciate in a rental whose maintenance is your concern.
On the exterior, I`d go with vinyl. Easily the most inexpensive siding, installation is simple and it`s maintenance free. I don`t care for it personally, but again, your talking about rentals.
Good luck,
J. D. Reynolds
Home Improvements
"DO IT RIGHT, DO IT ONCE"
the architect Ross Chapin designed an interesting cottage community in Washington and used ply interiors nicely there.
http://www.rosschapin.com/press.html
though I heard him speak and he said in the future he probably would use drywall inside for the economy.
best, GO
this may not be what you're after, but I recently had to make an access panel out of plywood and had to paint it green to match the room. So I primed it and painted it with two coats of green. Then I had the notion that I could hide the heavy grain pattern in the panel by sanding it with the power sander a little to take off the high spots and then put on a third coat. The result after sanding was very interesting; the grain lightened so much that the panel almost looked as if it had been lightly stained green rather than painted. You could vary the effect by the amount of sanding and colors you choose. I had to negate the effect by applying that 3rd coat of paint in the end. But I plan to use that effect somewhere eventually.
-Randy