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Why is my new home only sheathed with rigid material at some locations?

Home Improvement Asked on March 2, 2021

So today after a few weeks I went to go follow up on the progress of my tract home being built. Things are coming along well. One concern though I have that I found random was that there’s about 60 or so feet of random non-OSB sheathed walls around the house. They just put some plastic coroplast feeling type of plastic against the framing and nailed Dupont Tyvek to it. I find this weird.

Wouldn’t the whole house have the OSB? I have attached some pictures below. If this is a California code thing or something please let me now but its a little concerning. One of the areas they put the plastic was behind our heads in the master bedroom. Someone can just literally punch a hole through the house if they wanted to. I really hope they don’t do this to save a couple hundred bucks on some wood. I would have paid the damn difference.

Any advice or if I should be concerned please let me know. I found this in four spots on the house listed below:

  • Master bedroom, directly behind my headrest of the bed 8 feet

  • Outside wall of entire garage – 20 or so feet

  • about 6 feet right behind the 3.0 ton AC connections near our rear sliding door.

  • about 8 feet in my spare bedroom external wall

The rest of the house seems sturdy with strong plywood or OSB on the 2×6 studs but this seems like a security issue as well as a strength issue.

Please check out the images:

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2 Answers

Why not ask the builder about the lack of OSB sheathing in those places?

We have lived for 42 years in Dallas, Texas in a 1970 build tract house which has no serious sheathing anywhere. The studs are sheathed in an insubstantial fiberboard (dark brown in color) with aluminum foil on the outside.

The corners are 45 deg angle braced with 1" x 4" boards let in to the studs. Yet the house seems structurally stable. A custom builder from California told me once that stud construction as practiced in the US is far above the minimum required for structural soundness.

EDIT

Impression from the pictures is absolutely 1st quality construction. Exterior studs 2x6 on 16" centers? Is there to be an exterior access tankless water heater in the metal box in the first picture or is that for the electric service panel?

I would bet the builder would have a good reason for leaving off the OSB in those selected locations. Ask them and tell us what they say.

Answered by Jim Stewart on March 2, 2021

The OSB is there to create a 'shear' wall. The OSB provides additional rigidity to walls that are expected to have to resist lateral forces due to wind, slope, etc. It's not needed on all walls and in tract homes it would be generally considered an unnecessary expense to place it on all walls.

Answered by Arluin on March 2, 2021

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