Exterior Wall Sheathing Thickness

Exterior wall sheathing strengthens the wall system provides a nailing base for the siding and gives a layer of protection against outside elements.

Exterior wall sheathing thickness. Exterior gypsum sheathing is available in 1 2 5 8 thick 4 wide square edge product. For covering existing siding 1 2 inch and 3 4 inch thicknesses are commonly used. 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. 5 8 exterior gypsum sheathing has a type x core for use in fire rated assemblies.

So companies like norbord started creating tallwall windstorm panels to help alleviate this. 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. But in practice most walls with too thin foam won t fail.

Standard panels are 2 by 8 4 by 8 and 4 by 9 feet although some can be purchased in fan folded panels that run up to 50 feet long. 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. Exterior wall sheathing is either structural or non structural.