"Stephen Baker" wrote in message
...
Pop says:

I plan to build a 8 x 16 ft. barge using 3/8 osb sheeting and covering it
inside and out with a spray on bed liner material. Any pro or con comments
would be appreciated.


Read this first, then decide.

http://www.umass.edu/bmatwt/publicat...s_plywood.html

Also, be sure that the thickness is sufficient - 3/8" anything sounds
light for
a 16' barge, but it all depends on what the "barge" is used for.

Steve
//////////////////
Logs are ground into thin wood strands to produce oriented strandboard.
Dried strands are mixed with wax and adhesive, formed into thick mats, and
then hot-pressed into panels. Don't mistake osb for chipboard or waferboard.
Osb is different. The strands in osb are aligned. "Strand plies" are
positioned as alternating layers that run perpendicular to each other. This
structure mimics plywood. Waferboard, a weaker and less-stiff cousin of osb,
is a homogeneous, random composition. Osb is engineered to have strength and
stiffness equivalent to plywood.

Performance is similar in many ways, but there are differences in the
service provided by osb and plywood. All wood products expand when they get
wet. When osb is exposed to wet conditions, it expands faster around the
perimeter of the panel than it does in the middle. Swollen edges of osb
panels can telegraph through thin coverings like asphalt roof shingles.

So make sure edges are sealed and joints filled with epoxy paste and all
sealed with epoxy glass then no difference, even ply edges will wick if
exposed.

After all it is the same glue in use on both products.

I feel that where a dual shin of material is required the under surface
could be substituted with OSB.