Sheathing with foam board vs. osb or ply
Sawblade
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
I don’t know about other areas, but in just the last few years builders have been sheathing walls with foam board (with intermittent osb/ply) instead of sheathing the entire exterior walls with osb or ply. I guess this would add a minimal amount of R-value to the walls, but I’m just old school and still like to sheath entirely with osb/ply. Am I just behind the times? Am I missing some potential benefits by sheathing with foam board? What’s your view, pros, cons, on this issue?
Replies
The advantage is that the foam board is cheaper. It has negligible additional insulating value, but it can still be "sold" to the future HO as a "feature".
I don't see it here so much anymore, I think mainly because it's a PITA when hanging vinyl (and whole herds of vinyls have been slaughtered so their hides could be hung around here).
", but I'm just old school and still like to sheath entirely with osb/ply."
No if you where OLD SCHOOL you would be using board sheathing or even no sheathing, but let in straps at the corners.
Naw, wattle and daub.
Naw, wattle and daub.
You must be in the high rent district. Us poor folks just have sod :)
jt8
The reason so many people never get anywhere in life is because when opportunity knocks, they are out in the backyard looking for four-leaf clovers.-- Walter Percy Chrysler
You know what daub is, don't you? :)
You know what daub is, don't you? :)
wattle and daub: Woven sticks with mud on them?
ergo the attempt at humor that we poor folks could only afford the mud (dirt/sod).
jt8
The reason so many people never get anywhere in life is because when opportunity knocks, they are out in the backyard looking for four-leaf clovers.-- Walter Percy Chrysler
No, only the rich folks could afford pure mud.(Well, actually, even for the rich folks the "daub" was likely mud and straw mixed with dung, since the dung provided the "cement".)
we're currently remodeling/adding onto our 1940's home. I just removed the asbestos siding and found the board siding underneath. No wonder this home (and the others like mine) have lasted 60+ years of hurricanes. This home is stout.
Probabl be quite expensive to do it today though.
OSB for me on the addition-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Have you seen my baseball?"
Yeah, probably the strongest sheathing you can have is diagonal wood. Not much of a wind barrier, though, if you rip off the outer layer and put on vinyl or some such.
osb/ply PLUS foam would be nice.
Foam alone is a nice feature... it allows people to quietly break into your home with simply a utility knife. Plus foam alone lets builders save money while covering up with vinyl the fact that they have saved all that $$ on osb/ply.
I wouldn't be surprised if they advertised it as a "environmentally friendly house" since it requires less wood products to complete. :)
jt8
The reason so many people never get anywhere in life is because when opportunity knocks, they are out in the backyard looking for four-leaf clovers.
-- Walter Percy Chrysler
Stackdawg, foam was the rage around here in the 80's. The 90s was a mixed bag of foam or osb.
Foam houses are very shaky. When I'm on the roof of a foam house, I can feel every step that is taken when someone is walking in the house on the second floor. Also, when someone is walking on the roof, I can feel the house shaking when I'm on the second floor.
Part of the problem is that there are too many windows in the back wall. Sometimes, we have only a few stud bays with windbracing in it on a very large rear wall.
Yes, some builders still use foam around here....and we put hurricane straps to tie the trusses to the top plates. Too bad the engineers haven't figured out that staples and foam won't hold the top plates to the studs! That cracks me up.....five hours and four thousand nails to tie the trusses to foam!
Hahahahahaha.
blue
This is where have to differ with the crowd.
I used dow blue board on my house and sprayed the wall cavities with expanded foam and decked with 1 x 8 and my house managed to endure 100 mile plus straight line gust without any structural movement. This was before code called for metal strapping and ties.
65% of this house is vinyl siding and where I had a string of windows I used 1/2" plywood.
The foaming probably improved the structural strength as much as anything else.
ANDYSZ2I MAY DISAGREE WITH WHAT YOUR SAYING BUT I WILL DEFEND TO THE DEATH YOUR RIGHT TO SAY IT.
Remodeler/Punchout