Plywood-ing my shop walls? Question

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Parks 788

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So, when my parents came out to OK for Thanksgiving they had a great time. My dad is older, 82, but still very active and capable/stong and always wants a project to do. Unfortunately there is far less to do around our property in the winter than spring/summer. Plus I wanted them to just relax and enjoy since it was their first trip to OK since my wife and I got married in 1999. On their trip my dad mostly fiddled around in my 30x40 shop organizing things from our move to the property. It was mostly helpful. He kept asking for a project to do and had to steer him in different directions as I wasn't ready for big projects.

My shop is 30x40 red iron with the vinyl backed insulation. The walls have horizontal red iron supports that ring the structure at 8' off the floor. My biggest future project to help organize the shop is to install 3/4" o 23/32" plywood all along the first 96" of the shop. THis allows me to have much more utility in my shop with building heavy duty work benches, shelving units and storage racks for tools like rakes, shovels, sledges and any other tools with long handles. THe plywood gives me a good base to screw things into with better support.

My folks are coming back out in the spring to visit again and they both are begging to have a project ready for my dad to help work on. So, for Christmas my parents got me two gift cards to home depot for plywood. It's a lot of money on the cards so this is the start/planning stage for "the
big project". So, here is the big question after typing all this.

I'll be using the 3/4" range plywood. Nothing with sanded finish but a good structural panel that is moisture resistant. When I install these vertically side by side I'll be using hex self tapping screws to go into the red iron. Do i need to use a visqueen plastic moisture barrier in between the plywood and the vinyl backed fiberglass insulation? I will eventually put a wood stove in the shop and don't currently have an A/C unit but that is down the line too. Is this necessary to do when there is not a current problem with moisture in a shop environment? there will be an air gap of about 2" between the insulation and the back of the plywood. If it matters, I'll be holding the bottom edge of the plywood off the concrete floor by about 1/4" and will be painting the interior facing sheets of plywood with white paint. Filling any knot holes/divets with bondo prior to painting.

Let me know your thoughts on the plastic vapor barrier and whether needed or not. if you did something different but with a similar outcome let me know what you did. Thanks in advance.
 

perfor8

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No additional vapor barrier needed. I just did this exact project in my hangar - except it's painted battleship gray...

5/8 equivalent plywood is probably stout enough for attaching shelving/workbenches. I used C/DX. The C side was good enough to paint as-is.
 

joegrizzy

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yeah what's the theory on 3/4'' vs 1/2''? i'm not sure where 3/4'' would give you any advantage other than being heavier. sure it's a bit more thermal mass, but i'd think that 1/2'' would be just fine, and a 3/4'' 4'x8' sheet is heavy to haul around all day, trust me. even cut down to your widths, 3/4''s pieces are considerably heavier, harder to find, more expensive, and you can buy the same grade of ply in just 1/2''.
 

TinkerTanker

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I agree on the 1/2" plywood idea. You don't need 3/4" and the extra cost plus the added headache of dragging it around isn't worth it. You can screw things to 1/2" just fine, and put up 2x4s anywhere you need additional support for heavier items.

One thing, if you leave a gap at the bottom (which you should, to prevent any spills from sucking up and rotting it out), run a length of hardware cloth (wire) or screening around the bottom of the wall before putting up the plywood. to keep the mice out.

And finally, you need keep a busted motor around or some other broken thing for that old man to work on. Don't leave him hanging. You have all year to break something and put it on a bench or go pick something up off craigslist. Us old farts need to stay busy or death will catch up with us!

 
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