I just wanted your input on something. Again, I have been offered more space(4 x 12). Now, It’s going to be rested over our hot-tub and protrude off it 6 feet. I’m going to create legs on one side, but I wanted to know about what sort of covering material I should use.
I was looking at OSB since it’s cheap. I don’t really need the strength of plywood for something that weighs meer onces, but I don’t know how heavy it is compared to plywood. Now, the cheapest 4 x 8 piece of plywood I can get is pine, 1/4 of an inch, at $14.00. I can get a 3/4 of an inch piece of OSB for $8. The big thing is weight. I was looking at birch, since it’s lite, but I ain’t paying $45 for a 4x8.
I just wanted to know if OSB would be the way to go or plywood. Remember, this is going to be moved and rested on the floor or against walls.
Two things that do NOT go together are wood and hot tubs. The hot tub environment involves extremes of heat and humidity, which will swell and warp wood. If your layout will be in the proximity of a working hot tub, I would go with foam for a base. The foam is lighter and also more impervious to moisture than anything else out there.
On the other hand, I can picture you sitting in the tub with a couple of bikini-clad young ladies, explaining steam locomotive wheel specifications and naming conventions.
LOL…thats the life, eh? I forgot to add this, but I live in Florida. It’s summertime. The hot tub hasn’t ran since January. It IS empty, and will be until probally December. Now, it’s not going to be resting directly over the hottub. There is a foam cover that goes over the hot tub, so there is no water any where near the layout. The layout will most likely stay on the hot tub, unless it rains, or there is a large change in humidity. BTW, the hot tub and the entire layout will be under an enclosed area.
But you guys haven’t answered my question! I’m going to Home Depot tomarrow!!
I just finished tearing down my old layout that was mounted on 3/4 inch OSB. My experience with OSB is that it weighs just as much if not more than plywood. It is also hard to cut clean edges since its just a bunch of wood chips glued together. 3/4 inch OSB is pretty heavy, the 4x8 I carried out of my house must have weighed about 50 lbs, give or take a little. I’d go with the 1/4 inch plywood. It will weigh a lot less than 3/4" OSB, and it will look nicer too. It’ll be worth the extra $6
Of course, you can always find out yourself when you go to Home Depot.
Hope this helps!
The stuff really is not designed to be out in the weather, ever “under an enclosed area.” If it’s outside in Florida, it’s going to see extremes of heat and moisture. We were discussing warping in another thread last week, and the consensus was that almost all of the problems attributed to “thermal expansion” are really related to moisture and its effect on wood products.
It was not possible to answer the question without knowing about the hot tub. OSB is hard on tools, your saws and drills will get dull really quick. But with no outrageous humidity or water from the hot tub it should work. I’ve seen many a layout made with it. I’ve used it on a few things myself. But in the big scheme of things I would choose plywood.
If you go with the OSB, you don’t need 3/4". 1/2" in any plywood or OSB would be more than enough. OSB is heavier than ply. you may want to concentrate on a lighter construction for that move if the hot tub is ever to be used. How about modular construction? 1x3 with 1/4" ply and foam would work.
Bob K.
I went to Home Depot today. Picked up four 2 x 4s(10 feet), five 1 x 4s(8 feet) and a box of five hundred 1 1/4 in long wood screws. I tried to get the plywood, but I had my sister with me and couldn’t fit it in the van. I’m going to pick up two 4 x 8 pieces of 1/4 of an inch plywood. So I have changed my mind…I saw how heavy OSB was!! Not good for a mobile layout.
I also decided to go modular(thats why I got so much wood). It’s going to be broken up into three 4’ x 4’ tables. Each table is going to be bolted together with 8 heavy-duty bolt and nuts( 2" long). I know that’s a little overkill, but this has to endure my little sister[xx(]. Here is a link to the plan. http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g89/Jarolimek_Railways/untitled.jpg You have to click “Save as” and then when it’s saved, click “open with…windows picture and fax viewer.”. Then you have to zoom in. The words are blury, but I think everyone can manage.
Thanks,
Spit(
P.S. I’m going to create a build thread. BTW, construction starts saturday or sunday, depending on when my uncle says he’ll cut the wood with his table saw.
OSB or quarter inch plywood, left outdoors in Indiana, even under a roof big enough to keep them dry, will swell up to double thickness within a month. In Florida, figure on a week.
Both will start to shed large peices and generally fall apart within 6 months in Indiana. Florida, call it lucky if you get two months before complete failure.
Outdoors, Florida, Indiana, the Arctic, Africa, whereever, you have about one slim chance with wood, and that’s Marine Grade Plywood, finished, stained, sealed, preferably fiberglassed.
Marine Grade Plywood will cost more than most every option you listed.
Build your wood frame, hopefully out of CCA treated 0.40, 0.27 if you must, finished, stained and sealed untreated wood if you absolutely must, and deck it with two inch foam. All the foam currently in use on my layout here spent more than 8 years in the crawlspace, leftover after I insulated the crawl, which open to outside breeze in the summer, and floods to a depth of 6 or 8 inches on an average of three times a year.
Other than a little dust, the foam is good as new.
It’s not going to be left outside! Most likely, it will be disassembled and put either # 1, around the spare room or # 2, under the spare room bed if the scenery fits. I just spent $60 bucks on wood, so I’ll look into the foam($60 is alot of money for me). Depending on how much it is, I’ll look into it.
No, no, no. Okay…(sigh). My hot tub is outside. The reason the layout is going to be assembled and “Operated” outside is because I don’t have the room to assemble a 12 x 4 in my living room. When I am finished operating(on days with low humidity levels), i will than disassemble my layout into the 3 parts I discussed earlier and will store it in the house.
im using osb 1/2" plywood and its light weight and strong note: with this brand theres a smooth side and rough side make sure you smooth side is on top makes it look better. And its not that heavy. and i havent had any problems with rough edges when i cut, im using a circular saw. But it is a little hard to drill threw. Are you planing to make it something thats can be put up and taken down it short amount of time?
OSB is no heavier than plywood but it will react to humidity like any other wood (including plywood). If you put some foam on top of the OSB that should help minimize the effects of humidity changes. Even the 1/2" stuff would help. Since this is going outside I would definitely paint all sides of any wood you use. Using angle iron in your support structure should help also.
I use OSB in a few places on my layout without problems. (Note: my basement doesn’t vary much in either temperature or humidity)
After setting a world record putting up a Schlotskys Deli, (we shaved 14 days off the old world record of 77 days turnkey) I walked off the job, even though they had just cut me a $2000 bonus check, because my supervisors had ignored my advice and left a six million dollar house sitting for 6 weeks, incomplete.
I had sheathed the structure in OSB per specs, and the owner was planning to cut costs using a new technique for applying stucco directly onto the OSB. The stuff has swelled so bad that our next move would have been to run a belt sander all over the exterior, a two story giant with a vaulted barrel entry, and a three story walkout in the back.
Eating sawdust all day for weeks, at the top of a 40 foot ladder is nothing I want to do, or order my guys to do, especially when it was all so unnecessary.
That, and another twenty years of chasing old scraps just to finish high end projects on jobsites under penny pinching builders leaves me comfortable in reiterating my predictions of what happens to OSB if left outside. The edges swell the worst, and every edge is painted before it leaves the factory, usually orange, but sometimes red, blue, or green.
Still, “sepulchral predictions of doom” is an excellent use of the language, and cancels out any negative points you may have otherwise been eligible for.
Thanks. I like my treatises and missives to be perspicacious.
However, I will counter what you said with this observation - no matter what suggestion, experience, or anecdote one recounts, will have a horror story declaring how that exact process or examp
I wouldn’t consider stucco over OSB even if it was felt papered and/ or K lathed wired.
That guy had a real brainstorm. He never would have got me to scrape and sand the mess. Rip it off or sheath over it maybe. I can’t believe the plasterer would actually do the work knowing it would fail.
Bob K.