Hey all. As you know I’ve been working on a roof raise on my house doing most of the work myself. I’m siding now and as I’ve said before some plywood sheathing has been uncovered for a while. While putting the tar paper on I saw signs of “age” mostly on edges. Not rot but like a minor swell. I was wondering if once its covered and kept dry will it continue to degrade or will it just stay the way it is. Its not bad now but I don’t want to bury any trouble. Thanks.
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No moisture, no rot. If it's dry and kept that way, you should be fine.
Andy
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Yeah, your worst dangers are 1) that it's gone so long that substantial amounts of delamination has occurred, compromising strength (this doesn't sound to be the case), or 2) the "minor swell" will telegraph through the shingles as visible lines.
Thanks guys...yeah its noit major delamination...just a few spots. By the time I get the tar paper and foam on I don't think I'll see anything throught the vinyl siding. Thanks again.
This is just out of curiousity but how would "major delamination" be defined and identified signalling a loss of strength in plywood? Thanks
You know it when you see it. The surface of the plywood develops ripples because the top layer has separated from layers below it. If you bang on it it rattles.
There is no absurdity that human beings will not resort to in order to defend another absurdity. -- Cicero
If the glue is on it's last legs on the edges the only real problem I'd be conserned about is in areas considered sheer panels since those bad edges won't hold nails as firmly and might make a medeocre sheer situation less than desired. Use the best sheets for the sheer panels, use a closer nail spacing in those areas, and don't worry too much about it.
Ply and even LVLs do swell with moderate amounts of moisture over a relatively short amount of time, just not as bad as something like osb.
Beer was created so carpenters wouldn't rule the world.
BTW - don't think that now that you have the tar paper on it is good for another 4 months...
My experience is that regular 15# tar paper only holds up about 3 weeks before it starts to tear up in the wind/sun/rain. 30# only lasts a little longer. If you want longer service you have to go to a speciality underlayment.
Thanks again. Most of the ply looks good. Like i said its only certain spots here and there. I'm gonna tar paper it and side as fast as I can. I've had tar paper over most of it for a couple of months and other than some fading it seems fine. The back side is actually the same color as day 1 with minimal tearing or curling. I'm putting the foam underlayment over it then the vinyl. I just wanted to make sure that the little "damage" to the plywood wouldn't continue to spread (like a disease) once the paper, foam and sising were applied. I've seen plywood thats been out a long time like on walls around construction sites where there was major delamination with ripples across the whole sheets. This is nothing like that. Just some small sections swelled a little (some edges). I don't think there are any ripples and if you knock on it it sounds solid. Its not even discolored (greyish). I think the overhangs help a lot to shed water and the walls aren't that big. They are the shed and gable dormer walls. The rest of the house is covered in tar paper which like I said has held up well. We also haven't had much rain so I guess that helped.
Thanks. I 'm trying to side as fast as I can. I've had tar paper on for a couple of months now. It faded (though the back side is still like new [I saw it when I put the windows in]) and curled a little but overall not bad at all. As I go along, I restaple any curled part ,put the siding foam underlayment on top and then the vinyl. So far its going great. I tend to be a worrier which is probably the reason for this post (esp with it being my house) when in reality I prob have nothing to worry about. Just being cautious you know. Thanks again.
OH - I thought you meant sheathing and plywood on the roof....
Sidewalls are a little different.
After all tarpaper siding lasts for generations in Appalachia. :-) Seriously though I remember several years ago some guy posted here saying that he felt like he was being treated unfairly in his neighborhood. Registered letters and all that. He had tarpaper siding on for something like 8 years. Amazingly no one here (that I can remember) jumped to his aid. :-)
In another thread a guy wanted to know if the sheetrock he had stored in his house he was building was still good after 10 years. hehehe :-)
Sounds like after only a few months you are on the same schedule as some of my ex subs.... That is different though because they have crews... I think your paper is probably OK.