Quote:
Originally Posted by SAB1
While there are always arguments on each side about building products some people over react and get sucked into believing others opinions just because they heard it from a “reputable builder”. I agree with Mr. Mercer. This summer Zip was more than ply sheathing. Is it better or worse than plywood…time will tell. Everyone always jumped on OSB. Was it as good as plywood, no but I can say in 1996 I built my house in Rowley back in 1994 and it was sheathed with OSB. I stripped and resided it back in 2015 and the OSB looked like it did when it was hung and had no issues right up through last falls sale of that home.
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Totally agree about the undue influence from alleged builder/experts, most of whom were not in business 5 years ago under the same name.
As for OSB vs CDX, I wish it were as simple as just comparing the same size sheet of raw material, unfortunately its way more complex than that and you are still forgetting the Tyvek wrap cost and cost to install it.
Glad OSB worked well for you, maybe you had a good installer, maybe you were smart enough to not pressure wash your exterior and do it by spraying downwards not upwards, maybe you used 2 x 6 framing 16" on center and and didnt heavily load a 2 x 4 framing that was 24" on center, maybe you didnt add a lot of exterior features that relied on anchoring directly into the OSB sheathing, maybe you were not sensitive to the OSB off-gassing, ETC, Etc, etc. And so if all that was the case, then OSB was a good choice for you and either saved you a few dollars or allowed your builder to profit a few dollars more. Both are not bad.
I simply state that CDX and Tyvek are better overall choices than OSB or zip-board and should be the material you would expect to see in a multi-million dollar home construction. If any owner or the builder intentionally chose OSB or zip-board it has ZERO impact of me. I dont sell either product, I dont own stock in either product, I no longer have any connection to the construction industry, and I am not in the market for another home. But if I were, I can assure you I would be demanding to know what materials were used in the construction of said house, and it would be a major point of consideration if OSB or zip-board were used and where. Some places are easy to remedy in maintenance later, such as roof or exterior sheeting, some are nightmares such as sub-floors,,,
In the end its academic to me, as I have stated Im not in the market for a home and not renovating a home with OSB or Zip-Board, I simply observe its use in big dollar construction projects and think how sad to spend all that money and get a lessor product in its materials. To me its the new equivalent to aluminum wiring that was once hyped as a miracle product and look how that ended.
ATB