Exterior Wall Sheathing Thickness

In theory builders should make sure that any rigid foam installed on the exterior side of wall sheathing is thick enough to keep the sheathing above the dew point during the winter.

Exterior wall sheathing thickness.

The death of the 8 sheet one of the biggest items when sheathing a wall vertically is that the sheathing has to be continuous 602 10 4 5 which meant that an 8 sheet wouldn t cut it in many places so longer ones were required. For covering existing siding 1 2 inch and 3 4 inch thicknesses are commonly used. 5 8 exterior gypsum sheathing has a type x core for use in fire rated assemblies. Minimum plywood thickness the international residential code specifies 3 8 inch plywood for sheathing walls with a standard stud spacing of 16 inches if the siding is nailed to the studs through.

But in practice most walls with too thin foam won t fail. So companies like norbord started creating tallwall windstorm panels to help alleviate this. Exterior wall sheathing strengthens the wall system provides a nailing base for the siding and gives a layer of protection against outside elements. Exterior gypsum sheathing is available in 1 2 5 8 thick 4 wide square edge product.

Gypsum wallboard manufactured by american gypsum contains no asbestos. According to the california uniform building code the minimum recommended thickness for structural panels used in wall sheathing is 5 16 inch for studs 16 inches on center and 3 8 inch for studs. Foam board thicknesses range from 3 8 inch to 4 1 4 inches.