What Is Roof Sheathing

It spans the rafters to support the roofing and in the case of panel sheathing such as plywood or osb it acts as a diaphragm with the walls to resist horizontal loads.

What is roof sheathing.

Roof sheathing attaches to the surface of the rafters or trusses to form the structural skin of the roof. Your roofer will attach your shingles to these squares or planks of wood. Osb is lightweight relatively inexpensive and strong enough to resist bending or breaking should someone walk on the roof. Roof sheathing also known as roof decking is a strong layer of wood boards that are fixed to your roof s joists and trusses.

Roof sheathing is structural providing lateral bracing of roof framing members and it carries both live and dead loads from above to the rafters and trussesbelow. A tapered piece of sheathing can be cut to fill in at the eave if necessary. In the u s roof sheathing is almost always composed of wood usually osb oriented strand board or plywood. Sheath one slope of the roof at a time ripping the top course to the needed width at the ridge.

The trusses and beams of the roof give the roof its initial pitch and structure and then the sheathing is applied so the actual underlayment and roof covering can be applied. When one slope is completely sheathed pop a chalk line down any slope edge as in a hip roof that needs to be cut at an angle. Similar to exterior wall wood sheathing roof sheathing includes plywood oriented strand board and waferboard. To stabilize the rafters support the roofing material and hold the entire roof together roof sheathing is installed.

Roof sheathing or decking is one of those elements.