How many screws per board?

[CurlyDave]

An inexperienced user wielding nail guns for framing and sheathing usually does pure crap work. It never fails to amaze me how many new homes I see that are merely tacked together because the operator doesn't know or care if the nail hits anything solid or drives the wood together. Swing a hammer while framing or sheathing and the blow will drive the wood together and as Tallyho8 says, when you are pounding a nail you KNOW when the pointy end hits air. As a former jack of all trades carpenter with over 34 years of experience, I say NOTHING beats 3/4" CDX plywood for construction strength.

I don't know how you guys build, but I have always put up the stud wall, with temporary diagonal bracing, nailed the shear wall on with the nails called out in the nailing schedule, and then go inside and inspect for "shiners", i.e. nails which have not hit a stud. Typically these are close to a stud--too close to just drive out with a hammer, so I use a nail set and a hammer to drive them out about an inch. Go back outside and everywhere there is a nail sticking up, I pull it and then put a new one in with the nail gun. This doesn't get them all, but there are very, very few left.

The inspector always looks for shiners, and will frequently let me get away with 1 or 2 per sheet of plywood or OSB, but not more than that. Especially if they are so close to the stud that they raise splinters all along the length of the nail.

I don't think you can do much better than this with a hammer. If it raises splinters along the stud, it is going to feel like it went into something.

 

[EddieWalker]

An inexperienced user wielding nail guns for framing and sheathing usually does pure crap work. It never fails to amaze me how many new homes I see that are merely tacked together because the operator doesn't know or care if the nail hits anything solid or drives the wood together. Swing a hammer while framing or sheathing and the blow will drive the wood together and as Tallyho8 says, when you are pounding a nail you KNOW when the pointy end hits air. As a former jack of all trades carpenter with over 34 years of experience, I say NOTHING beats 3/4" CDX plywood for construction strength.

I'm not saying 7/16 OSB is stronger then 3/4 CDX plywood. That is pretty obvious. But if you are using 3/4 plywood for your sheeting, then what size nails are you using for your shingles and siding? If the point of the nail doesn't go through the wood, then the shaft wont have any holding power through the wood. This is where OSB is so much better then half inch plywood. Going up in size to 3/4 would be stronger if you wanted to compare OSB to 3/4 inch plywood, but you would have to use much longer nails too. With studs at 16 inches, is that increase in strength even measurable or noticeable? Or is it just an added expense to the cost of materials without any return?

Eddie

 

[deepNdirt]

I was telling my wife about the debate going on here on this thread, about Nails / Screws / spacing Doe's dont's etc,etc,
I explained how the OP was going to finalize the exterior with metal,
Her reply was...
"Seems to me if he lives in an area where he must worry about nails and screws shearing off due to high winds, He should be also concerned about how he's going to keep the metal from blowing off his building"
we got to love the brilliants of our wifes,
I also explained to her it's not the OP who was concerned about nails verses screws, Plywood verses OSB,
His concern was about the spacing of the screws?

 

[UpToNoGood]

I was never concerned about wind on this project, but otbers have brought it up. The only thing that has changed in my build is nails now vs screws and maybe 10' plywood if the cost is not outrageous. The metal that gets attached to the plywood will be far better than if it was attached to just perlins and will stand up to more than any other option available.

Thanks to everyone helping me with this.

 

[deepNdirt]

I was never concerned about wind on this project, but otbers have brought it up. The only thing that has changed in my build is nails now vs screws and maybe 10' plywood if the cost is not outrageous. The metal that gets attached to the plywood will be far better than if it was attached to just perlins and will stand up to more than any other option available.

Thanks to everyone helping me with this.

I was sure the purpose of you using 3/4 ply was to have a thick enough back-board to fasten the metal to,
By my mentioning purlins was to give support to the ply but-joint between each stud, However thinking now you are likely using 3/4 T&G ply, which will of course lock the joints together,
There is a product on the market I've been using quite a bit,
called ( 23/32 AdvanTech) It's much better quality of OSB then the standard, a bit pricy but I think a few dollars less than 3/4 plywood , Quite heavy to work with,

 

[UpToNoGood]

The plywood backing it to secure the building from many things from people to rodents. I know given enough time both man and rodent will make its way in to my building, but I want to do it right and strong the first time. Our property is in the high desert NM and I have seen what rodents can do to a flimsy building. Also consider a rock flying from a mower at a metal building backed with only purlins. The rock will punch a hole in the metal, but with plywood would only result in a dent at most.

My end goal is a stout building that will require little to no maintenance at a fair price. Concrete would take care of all my concerns but cost.

Not sure if you noticed in post 15 here: How many screws per board? - Page 2 but if you look close I will have a total of 11 3 1/3 x 3 1/2 sq tube that will be welded to the concrete slab that has metal plates sunk in to the concrete.