Wallcovering and flooring ideas

[MikeT]

Not a question from me this time but a contribution:

I was at Grinnell College in Iowa this past weekend for a professional meeting, and when I went to their art gallery in their fine arts center, I was intrigued with how their architect chose to integrate regular building materials into the design.  

Cesar Pelli is the architect.  

For the walls, he used OSB with a polyurethane coating (looked like a matte finish) and then used some sort of aluminum track to break up the walls.  I have read on at least one post about people being reticent about OSB because of off-gassing, but if one is looking for an inexpensive wall-covering, OSB is pretty hard to beat in terms of price.

For the floor, he used plywood sitting with end grains up.  I have seen end grain flooring with regular wood but never with plywood.

Anyway, here are pictures of each:

[highlight]WALLS[/highlight]


[highlight]FLOORING[/highlight]

[John Raabe]

-Mike:

An interesting use of materials and thanks for sharing those pictures. (Note, I've edited the post and images so they don't take up space and slow down the forum. Linking to a Photobucket account works better than downloading to countryplans.com - info in header above)

Outgassing of OSB is pretty much a thing of the past if you get a national brand. Using this material as a wall covering will also add considerable racking resistance to a house - turning regular walls into mini-shear walls. My only concern might be that getting the walls smooth enough may take more finishing work than just a coat of Poly.

End grain flooring has a long history. Wood is strongest when the load is aligned with the fibers.

End grain blocks were used extensively in the early 20th century for industrial flooring and stood up to fork lifts, etc. It was usually short blocks of oak or fir, often in 4x4 patterns. Using end grain plywood is an interesting alternative.