How To Lay Plywood On A Roof

During a hurricane the strength of the sheathing on the roof can greatly impact the homes ability to weather the storm.

How to lay plywood on a roof.

Align the long edge of the sheathing with the ends of the. Install baffles providing a minimum of 1 inch of clear space between framing and or under roof decking at eaves to ensure that ceiling or roof insulation does not block ventilation paths. Once the roof rafters are perfectly aligned it is now time to prepare for the plywood sheeting. The connection between the roof sheathing and the structure is a vulnerable point that is known to fail during a hurricane.

Using these steps you will be able to save big on sheathing your roof. Position the first piece of plywood or oriented strand board sheathing on the bottom edge of the rafter tails at one end of the roof. This video shows how some roofs fail under heavy winds in uplift situations. To secure it measure it roll it out over the plywood cut it to the dimensions of the roof with a roofing or utility knife and finally hammer it securely to the plywood with 1 2 inch roofing nails.

The answer depends mostly on how far apart the rafters are and the roof loads which vary based on the pitch of your roof. The most common scenario is a home that has rafters set approximately 16 inches apart. It is assumed here that you will be applying plywood particle board or wafer board sheathing. Preparing your plywood sheets using a string line mark a line to guide the first row at the eaves.

Run a string line over the roof trusses and then either plane the high parts or add packing to create that perfectly straight line. Like most other things there is no one right answer for the plywood thickness of your roof. If you have chosen to use a rigid roofing metal wood shakes or shingles tile etc you can use 1 x 4 slats instead.