I’m working on a shed at home and, as I was ordering materials, found that OSB / chip board is much cheaper than plywood.
Why would an apartment building use plywood, when I imagine it’ll be covered by insulation/vapor barrier anyway?
I’m working on a shed at home and, as I was ordering materials, found that OSB / chip board is much cheaper than plywood.
Why would an apartment building use plywood, when I imagine it’ll be covered by insulation/vapor barrier anyway?
Oh! I know this! Yes its cheap. But a few years ago, Industry pushed really hard to get OSB fire code compliant for tall builds. That’s why.
Rather than banning raw OSB, the modern building codes including updates under the International Building Code (IBC) and the National Building Code of Canada (NBC) implemented strict “Fire-Resistance Assembly” and adopted new rules for use of fire resistant treatments and build parameters for it.