Gaps in plywood

[howdy_doody4u]

Hi, I am having my house built by a contractor. He seems to have good relationships with his customers and he has been pretty good so far. I am having a problem with the sheets of plywood that he has put up. There are some gaps in between the plywood sheets. The builder says with the insulation, sheet rock, and siding (Hardi Plank) that it would not matter. Should I be worried about this? Is this standard practice or should I go back and spray some foam fillers in there? Thank you for your help.

[mjpliv]

Do not be concerned about gaps in exterior sheeting. In some areas they are actually required to allow for shrinkage of the wall studs. The air barrier (house wrap) will control the air movement through the wall cavity. As long as you interior vapour barrier is sound, you should be fine.

[Sophist]

In BC it is code to leave a 1/4" gap between the sheets of OSB.

1. allows better ventelation of the wall cavity

2. during construction if the OSB gets wet it will swell. If the sheets are right together the sheeting will buckle.

Once the building paper and siding are installed there is no issue of leaking.

Dave

[Rich]

1/4" gaps for ventilation - what are they thinking? :)
I can see 1/8" for expansion contraction of the OSB itself - but not for ventilation. We're supposed to be building tighter and tighter buildings - not letting air in.
Do you have something I can read on that Sophist? I have an interest in that type of thing for upcoming articles on TeamContractor. That is after I finish a couple here first.. hah.

[Sophist]

Rich

Sorry my facts are a bit off, the BCBC say min of 2 mm.

We did a job here in Kamloops and the bldg inspector made us provide 1/4" space to prevent buckling.

Perhaps since Kamloops has a high rainfall intensity. During the summer it isn't unusual for it to downpour an 1" or 2 of rain in an hour. Must be a local code.

Dave

[Rich]

Wow.. seems excessive - but then again most codes eventually do seem excessive at some point.

[Sophist]

Wow.. seems excessive

That is what I thought as I went around the building with the skil saw.

Dave

[Tom R]

And a dado blade :lol:

[Sophist]

No. No dado. We already had 1/8" so the saw kerf was all that was needed.

[grumpydasmurf]

1/8" gaps is typical for the Chicago region.

[colonial carpentry]

In a totally unrelated state of mind i am going to ask you how much you are paying for the hardi board siding i need to shop this around because this guy that gave me a bid here is at $235.00 a square.I really am impressed with the appearance and durability of the product but i'd like to see that price come down a bit.