OSB vs Drywall walls

[PassnThru]

1/4" drywall over the OSB walls and it's corrected.

Except for the quarter inch gap that now exists around the windows, door frames, and electrical boxes. A lot of fussy work to get all that right.

 

[rayra]

I am looking into getting a house in Springfield, MO. At my price point, I'm expecting a lot of reno, and want to have this notion I have confirmed or denied.

Is OSB, MDF, or particle board good for walls. Specifically interior, on a 20's or 30's house? Obviously drywall is the norm, buy it seems like not-compacted-dust would be a better option for durability and attaching things to the walls. OSB is my primary choice (plywood would be stupid expensive for anything is want on the walls LOL).

I think it would work, and i could just paint it, but the seams would show, as would the screws, etc. Is there something I could use to coat it, or is there a reason drywall is the main wall material?

Edit: for inside of house, not garage/shop.

Your idea is terrible and will look like excrement.

There are a variety of anchors and methods for hanging things on drywall or detecting the stud locations behind it. Which obviate all of your mounting concerns that you imagine you would solve with OSB.

 

[jar944]

I bet there's drywall underneath all those.

Maybe, maybe not. It's common to remove drywall when installing wall paneling/real wainscoting. Of course that's not all encompassing like some shiplap.

 

[Zeke]

Do you have a code reference for this? Numerous homes have wood interior wall coverings - shiplap, paneling, etc.

No he doesn't. Not in the IRC anyway. Some commercial though. Believe it or not, fire resistant paint like coatings can make a restaurant compliant. Things like café curtains and wall paper need to be treated.

 

[Sanderguy777]

I don't know how long you expect to live in the house, but good luck trying to sell it in the future. You'd probably have to take a 50% loss because the next buyer knows he has to rip up your entire home and practically start over throughout the entire interior of the house. And that's after you spent all that money to do your custom interior. Cheap looking tacky interior that requires a full gut job (sorry, just being blunt).

Drywall holds up pretty well to slight impacts. Nobody should be kicking a foot through your drywall in your home, because if they do, they'd be getting a thorough whooping in return. In hotels people will do whatever they want, because it's not theirs. Anything that does scratch/marr/dent the drywall can be easily filled in with mud, give it a light sanding, and then a coat of paint. And if you need to hang stuff from the drywall, you can use many different types of anchors that hold a significant amount of weight, and anything of value or heavy weight, well you just need to be very thoughtful in your planning and placement to make sure you hit the studs.

I think you're probably overthinking this. Houses are not shops. The interior of your house is supposed to be nice, drywall nice. The interior of my garage is nice, drywall nice, because that's how I like it. And yes I hang tools and garden tools from my drywall and shelves without issue. If drywall was truly that weak in the interior of homes, the makers would have gone out of business a long time ago.

PS - for a wood look, you can also go shiplap (as previously mentioned above). But shiplap is not an excuse to do a poor job of decorating your interior (where you mount and hang stuff).

I'll probably be going with drywall, just because of the cost.

But kids exist, and they do some dumb things occasionally, so I still think a wood type material would be better. I also don't care about the look of the material. Not saying I'd just throw up some scrap and do nothing else, but that I would paint the whole thing, and if that didn't look good (on the sample pieces I'd try it on), then I'd mud over the whole thing (I'd have to probably anyway, jut because of the screw holes.)

 

[Sanderguy777]

If you are cost conscious and concerned about holes in the walls install the cheapest paneling you can find first and then drywall over it. Nothing short of an intentional abuse will put a hole in that wall and it will retain the aesthetics, ease of aesthetic repair, and fire rating that make drywall so popular.

That's a good idea, thanks! Doesn't let me hang stuff wherever, but it's definitely better than plain drywall.

 

[Sanderguy777]

Fire codes require different fire ratings for walls. Drywall is typically the least expensive way to achieve the performance. As noted above, 5/8" is common in some places for fire rated drywall. Where I live, (in the City) I have 1 1/4" of drywall for some of my fire rated ceilings.

For inside the house, chair rails and wainscoting are common techniques to toughen-up walls. As said above, putting ply behind drywall is a wonderfull thing in kitchens, but expensive to pull off.

IMO - If you hare going to have kids - TEACH THEM HOW TO PATCH THEIR DAMAGE AND PAINT!!! Don't worry about damage children can do because you will have child labor to make up the difference. Plus the skills they will learn will make them ready to become future GJ members.

Yeah, definitely will have then learn to fix their mistakes (and how to build things, fix cars, etc). Unbelievable how many projects you can save huge money on by understanding how things work, and how to fix them.

Your idea is terrible and will look like excrement.

There are a variety of anchors and methods for hanging things on drywall or detecting the stud locations behind it. Which obviate all of your mounting concerns that you imagine you would solve with OSB.

I think most people are misunderstanding what I'm suggesting. I'm saying to put OSB (just because ply is too expensive) up, then cover it with paint (and mud on the screws) at the least, and probably mud all over and texture too. It wouldn't look much, if any different than drywall, but you would have a much more impact resistant surface (main point) that can hold most things ANYWHERE. I would still mount things to studs I'd they were too heavy, but everything else would be nice and easy to hang.

I'm a maintenance man, so yes, I know there are hangers for drywall. But they are usually junk. They make good ones (which I have at home), but the majority of the ones we have yo use on a regular basis are junk. The butterfly type need HUGE holes to even fit into the wall (at least 1/2" for a 3/16 bolt size, which is big enough for the whole head of the bolt to fall into the wall along with the spring part LOL). They can also be destroyed with literal screwdriver torque (and they frequently are when we try to tighten down brab bars or AC covers so people don't rip them off the walls.)

Osb isn't the top material I'd choose, but if it was to code, and topped with the same level of work as drywall, it would look fine, and do a much better job of being durable than drywall. I don't expect to be able to use it since it would be more money and out of code (or skirting on the edge), but it wouldn't look any worse.

 

[Norcal]

OSB is not going to finish like drywall, if worried about durability/damage use 5/8" drywall. I live in a 1943 prefab house all walls were plywood, drywall was hung over the plywood many years ago and it is much better. Even though the plywood is 1/4" I pity anyone who tries to put a fist through it.

 

[eejack]

The issue with mudding osb is cracking. You will have to skim coat the entirety of the wall with something that is not designed to cover that material and it will crack and pop off under lots of circumstance. Or you can not skim it and your interior will look like an painted packing crate ( mind you that is now a 'feature' in some high end construction

The Best Oriented Strand Board (OSB) Interiors

These wood-wrapped spaces take the low-cost material to new heights.

www.dwell.com

)

If you are concerned about wall damage, go with 5/8" sheetrock.
If you are concerned about hanging things then go with either good fasteners...or plan ahead and put blocking between the studs where your concern is greatest.

No offense, but it seems like you are trying to solve problems that don't exist for everyone else who has interior sheetrock walls. If these were truly valid issues, the industry would have solved them.

 

[JackOfDiamonds]

Drywall is better. People talk like OSB is so durable, but it doesn't actually take screws very well. You'll still need studs to hang heavy things. Give me drywall and a baggie of 80lb EZ ancors any day. Sure drywall can get beatup, but OSB looks like S*** from the moment you put it up! Just patch any damage. And drywall can be patched in minutes to looking like new, how do you patch OSB? Drywall is made for walls, that's all there is to it. I think people who go with osb just haven't worked with drywall to realize how easy and good it is. How exactly do you cut holes for new electrical boxes in OSB? With drywall it's 30 seconds with a stab saw. How do you seal the seams in OSB? Not to mention drywall is usually required by fire code.

OSB is structural sheathing. It's for roof decks and under siding. It's not an interior wall material. Drywall is and there's good reasons. Stop making life harder for yourself by doing weird things.

 

[Metal-Marc]

LoL

This is a troll thread.

edit: People are still replying and offering opinions...

 

[428PI]

Or you can not skim it and your interior will look like an painted packing crate ( mind you that is now a 'feature' in some high end construction

The Best Oriented Strand Board (OSB) Interiors

These wood-wrapped spaces take the low-cost material to new heights.

www.dwell.com

Video was interesting but not for me but gave me some ideas. I'm going to osb a 42 ft by 14 ft high interior wall in my shed and am getting ideas. About a fourth of current wall has old barn wood on other side of studs. I'm going to remove the barn wood and apply it over the osb after painting the osb and only cleaning up the barn wood with some water. I'm also going to remove the shed outside split doors to put in a new walk in door and window. Well, I'm going to use the old split doors as accent pieces in the wall also. The whole idea is to break up the osb wall. Was walking through Crested Butte and got ideas there too. They certainly like their corrugated galvanized rusty roof panels (I don't know how they keep them from leaking) and old wood accent pieces. It inspired me to not throw away the old just yet.

 

[paredown]

Best durability that is "affordable"--if you can find the right contractor would be 5/8" firewall (type x) gypsum blue board, then a plaster skim coat.

Type X, as well as being fire rated, it has more fiberglass in its manufacture and is tougher and heavier. The small downside--it is not available in long lengths, so you may have more end seams to tape and fill--but if you are skim coating, this is probably moot.

It also means that by default you have covered the standard code requirements for fire-rated wall assemblies--ceiling over garage if there is living space above, common wall between house and garage , furnace room(s) or other areas called out in your local code

The plaster makes it a little harder to get screws started for hanging stuff, but it wears so much better than today's standard 1/2" board. And if you know you are hanging stuff--add blocking while you frame--kitchens, bathrooms, closets--this is where having a good idea of how you are finishing the space is invaluable while you are framing.

One thing that I have noticed is that ever since the cover paper was changed to recycled paper, and "light" drywall has become the standard, 1/2" board is nowhere near as resilient as it used to be.
(Full disclosure--I have used 5/8" type x in all the rooms I have redone, except some closets--I don't like the flimsiness of current 1/2" board. The only reason we didn't plaster skim coat was absence of money.)

 

[strutaeng]

Best durability that is "affordable"--if you can find the right contractor would be 5/8" firewall (type x) gypsum blue board, then a plaster skim coat.

Type X, as well as being fire rated, it has more fiberglass in its manufacture and is tougher and heavier. The small downside--it is not available in long lengths, so you may have more end seams to tape and fill--but if you are skim coating, this is probably moot.

It also means that by default you have covered the standard code requirements for fire-rated wall assemblies--ceiling over garage if there is living space above, common wall between house and garage , furnace room(s) or other areas called out in your local code

The plaster makes it a little harder to get screws started for hanging stuff, but it wears so much better than today's standard 1/2" board. And if you know you are hanging stuff--add blocking while you frame--kitchens, bathrooms, closets--this is where having a good idea of how you are finishing the space is invaluable while you are framing.

One thing that I have noticed is that ever since the cover paper was changed to recycled paper, and "light" drywall has become the standard, 1/2" board is nowhere near as resilient as it used to be.
(Full disclosure--I have used 5/8" type x in all the rooms I have redone, except some closets--I don't like the flimsiness of current 1/2" board. The only reason we didn't plaster skim coat was absence of money.)

Agreed.

On our addition to our house I used 5/8 type X through. I got 4x12 sheets. The advantage to being stronger and more impact resistant is also the disadvantages: it's HEAVY. I think my sheets were 104lb each. Ouch. But overall I'm very happy with the way it turned out.

Just like I mentioned in my previous post, jambs have to be wider for window and door casings. You can custom order door this way. I made my own jabs. Electrical boxes stick out a tiny bit more. No big deal.

They do also make other types of 5/8 gypsum board. My home Depot or Lowe's carries something called FC30. It's lighter than the type X. I think FC means fire code?