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April 2005 - War of the Woods
The War of the Woods!
Plywood vs. Waferboard
The announcer makes his way into the boxing ring, grabs the microphone, and says, "In this corner, the challenger and undisputed newcomer - waferboard. And in this corner, the champion, and undisputed old time stand-by, plywood." All right, I know that's corny but the fight between waferboard and plywood may continue forever, or at least until plywood is too expensive to manufacture and the bigger trees used to make plywood are gone forever.
These two sheathing products may have more in common than you might think. Plywood met with fierce resistance back in 1905 when the cost and supply became so competitive that builders would have been out of their minds not to try this new and innovative product. Yet many stubborn and thistle headed contractors still wanted to use the 1 x 5 x ¾ tongue and groove boards for roof decks and sub-floors up until the second world war. Eventually, even the most stalwart of builders would give way to plywood, if not because of cost, because plywood had become a proven product and was much faster to install.
Waferboard has also met with heavy resistance. However, unlike modern day plywood, waferboard had some very serious quality issues early on. The worst problem with waferboard, or OSB as it is called in the business, is damage caused by water. OSB or oriented strand board is just that, oriented strands or chips of wood all facing the same way with a resin glue to keep it together. The next layer runs across the grain of the precious stands making a strong bond. The edges of most modern OSB are waxed to prevent water penetration. The first particle board, chip board, and waferboard would swell and grow by 300% when exposed to a large amount of water, especially at the edges. It would no return to its original thickness when dried. Plywood, however, would only swell a little but would return to almost its initial thickness.
Manufacturers of both plywood and OSB think that their products perform well. Using a sheathing made from wood chips does make some builders very nervous, but in the Rochester area not so nervous that a ten dollar a sheet difference wouldn't make it worth while. Like it or not ladies and gentlemen, OSB or waferboard will define the very future of the structural sheathing and sub-floor market as we know it. The new glues used to bond waferboard sure do make it worth the gamble.
Most builders give their clients a chance to choose between plywood and OSB, only if they agree to pay the difference. OSB seems to double in price when we invade a country like Afghanistan or Iraq, or have a state like Florida which takes four consecutive hits by hurricanes. In the last two years over 40 new waferboard plants have been built and still in Rochester the average price of a sheet of 7/16" waferboard remained about $16 for most of this year. As this article is going to press all three major home centers in Rochester are selling OSB for about $12 per sheet. Always remember, if you are going to use any sheathing on an exterior surface make sure it is rated "exposure 1" or an exterior product.
My wife loves plywood and can't stand waferboard due to the fact that I am cheap and use waferboard for exterior projects. Waferboard does not hold up as well as plywood outside without being covered or at least painted. On a farm, plywood rules!
If you are a mule headed builder and do not want to use OSB for some dopey reason, or you are a builder that only cares about profit and the bottom line and will not use plywood, then there are some people who will not buy your homes. Let your client make the decision. Offer them the option and provide them with good solid information in which to make their decision.
I truly believe OSB in the way of the future, and, when used to sheath a home, performs at least as well as plywood. The only time OSB would fail would be from a catastrophic moisture issue.
All I know is that I used to buy waferboard for $5.99 a sheet not all that long ago. Thanks Florida for not building more hurricane proof buildings and using half of the nation's waferboard!
The Safety Section
In our ongoing effort to bring you the latest and greatest safety ideas from around the world we stumbled across an unbelievable product not yet available, but coming soon. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, otherwise known as "The Government", reports that there were approximately 33,000 injuries from table and bench saws in 1998 that were sufficiently serious to require a hospital visit, which means stitches or reattachment by a micro surgeon. Of these injuries, with approximately 95% were hand and finger injuries, with approximately 3000 amputations of one or more fingers. These injuries can now be minimized or completely avoided with SawStop technology. SawStop is basically a table saw whereby the blade stops instantly if it touches your finger or hand while it's operating. May of us avid woodworkers will remove the guard from our table saws. I know it's dumb, but we all do it. SawStop technology provides an active safety system that continuously monitors for accidental contact with the saw's blade4, regardless of user training, fatigue, or misuse. Unlike blade guards, a safety system incorporating SawStop technology provides an always-on, on-removable safety system. Why would you want to remove a system like SawStop from a table saw when you paid much more for the thing to begin with? Oh well, check this out at the SawStop web site - SawStop.com
Lawn Tips
I don't know about you, but my yard is a muddy mess! Get yourself a couple bales of good clean straw. Spread the straw over the muddy areas of your lawn and sprinkle grass seed over the entire area. The straw makes it easier to walk on those messy areas and provides good protection for those growing grass seeds! When the grass is about an inch high, simply rake up the straw and place it in your compost pile.
H2O news
With Doug the Plumber
 I have two kids in college, so it's imperative that I make lots of money each week to keep my kids in the lifestyle in which they are accustomed. One of the things you, as a homeowner, can do to help my family is to keep putting things down your drains that don't belong there. Things such as garbage, un-copped food, feminine napkins, and those little decorative items that fall off the toilet tank lid into the bowl. I would like to take this opportunity to introduce "Alfred", the sewer machine. Alfred can snake out a clogged drain in a very short period of time. Alfred has the capacity to run out 200 feet of spring loaded snake material at a cost of 1.25 per foot.
It always amazes me when people call my office and say, "My drain has been slow for a week and a half and I have a dinner party tonight, can you get here first thing this morning?" Sunday nights are the worst; I have a "first thing in the morning" list each Monday morning as people line up to have their drains cleared.
Remember this: when a drain begins to slow down, especially the main sanitary sewer pipe to the street, always call right away to have the lines cleared. Some buried exterior drain lines will actually freeze if they are allowed to remain full of waste for an extended period of time. The team of Doug the plumber and Alfred, the sewer machine can really do some serious damage to those clogs, so keep putting all that stuff down your drain pipes! My family thanks you!
Hardware Humor
My radio partner, John Carr and I spent many years in the retail hardware and home center business. One of our best customers was a guy who moved to Rochester with his family from New York City. One day he cam into our store and asked for some good quality bathroom caulking. John fixed him up with a caulking tube of really excellent silicone caulking. The only problem was John forgot to ask him if he had a caulking gun at home. The guy returned to the store the next day very upset with John, carrying a twisted and destroyed tube of caulk. He exclaimed "I squeezed and I squeezed and this stuff wouldn't come out of the tube." The moral of the story is: not everyone knows what a caulking gun is used for.
Tool Shed
Most do it yourselfers try to accumulate the latest and greatest when it comes to tools for their shop. However, the often concentrate too much on the tools requires for making or creating things and less on the tools requires for demolition and destroying things. When it comes to tearing down old plaster walls, taking apart door units or just plain-old destroying stuff, the right tolls will be the difference between success and total frustration.
We all need a Wonder Bar! It is the main stay for those of us who specialize in the art of ruining things. A Wonder Bar can also be used to lift drywall sheets into place and hold them until nailing is complete. You can beat these things with a hammer without mercy. The new kid on the block is the Gorilla Bar set. This one is much larger than the Wonder Bar and can withstand a hard hit with a sledge hammer. For the cost of these two essentials, about $12 for the Wonder Bar and $20 for the Gorilla Bar set, you would be "out of your mind" not to own them both!
Expert Craftsman
Jim Salmon's tip of the month.
Petroleum jelly has been around for years, 145 to be exact. Often used to soften bottoms or repair chapped lips. But did you know that Petroleum jelly or Vaseline as it is most commonly referred to can be a life saver around the house? Consider the following.
 Easier closing shower curtains
Removing chewing gum from wood
Make vacuum cleaner pieces fit easier
Restore leather jackets, baseball mitts, and leather shoes
Keep ants out of your pet food bowls
A super lubricant for tough nuts and bolts, noisy hinges, and other moving parts that squeak or don't move at all
Apply to the threads of an outdoor light bulb to make it easier to remove when it needs to be replaced
Spread around the lids of metal cans. It will make unscrewing them easier and create a better seal. It works on paint cans too!
Smear some on the joints of your sink traps under your sinks to seal them up good and tight and help prevent water leaks.
This stuff is great! And inexpensive to boot! The more we search for new high tech inventions to make our lives easier, the more we should just look around us!
Helpful Home Repair Websites
Jim recommends the following home improvement web sites.
HomeRepairClinic.com - HomeRepairClinic.com is one of the most comprehensive home repair web sites on the internet, plus you can ask home repair related questions at any time!
DoItYourself.com - probably the most popular home repair site in the world - However, be careful of the "find a contractor section"; that is a pay as you go, and anyone can get listed.
HomeTime.com - Home time features step-by-step information to home improvement, remodeling, and repair. Projects include decks, kitchen, and bathroom remodeling.
KnowledgeHound.com - Knowledge Hound is the Web's biggest directory. Home & Family Childcare, Garden & Lawn, Homebuilding, Home Repair.
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