10′ wall sheathing; plate to plate
I’m building a single story ranch home and was wondering if anyone has ever sheathed their exterior walls using 4’x10′ OSB in the vertical position. My plan is to frame my (roughly 9 foot) walls on the deck, square them, and apply the 10′ sheathing vertically; leaving 13-1/2″ off the base to cover the (12″) engineered rim board and (1-1/2″) sill plate. This will tie everything from the sill plate to the top plate together. It also eliminates the need for horizontal blocking to cover the seams created when installing OSB horizontally. The APA says vertical sheathing is fine. I was just curious if anyone out there does it and, if so, how tricky it might be to raise the walls with over a foot of sheathing hanging off the bottom.
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Replies
Dood51,
As you say, unlike horizontal applications (floors, roofs), there is no real structural advantage to orienting the sheets across the structural members on walls.
The only potential disadvantage to covering the wall and floor assembly with one sheet is that if there is significant shrinkage of the lumber across the grain, the sheathing can end up carrying some of the vertical loads. In your case this is mitigated by using an engineered rim, removing lot of the shrinkage.
Standing the walls isn't a problem. You just need to locate the bottom place in the right spot before framing the wall, and hinge the wall so it doesn't kick out as you lift it. The bottom plate should be set slightly under 5 1/2" from the edge of the subfloor. There a few ways to hinge walls that have extended sheathing. We nail a 16" piece of the banding that comes with your lumber order to the bottom of the 2"x6" and run it under the plate, nailing the other end through the subfloor into a joist. You need one every 8 ft or so. When you lift the wall this piece straightens out and keeps the wall in the right position. Once the wall is up and braced, you snip off the banding at the interior face of the plate.
That is the way it is done to eliminate blocking. The blocking labor adds up. Done all the time in S. California.
Dood51,
Just something to consider when choosing wall heights. Most walls are framed at either 8'-1" or 9'-'1" because pre-cut studs are cut for those heights and drywall comes in sheets 4 or 5 ft wide. What you may gain in less blocking, you may lose in cutting lumber and drywall.