h-clips and roofing questions.

[rocking23nf]

Question about roofing, i finished plywooding my rood this weekend, i was one board short cause 1 got damaged. Anyways went to the building store to buy one, they told me that no one builds roods with 5/8s T&G plywood, and that i should be using smaller wood with h-clips.

I have never heard or seen of such clips, and I ended up putting a piece of non t&G plywood.

So im kinda wondoring what peoples opinions are, i tend to overbuild things, and the 5/8's plywood seems very durable, I mean i was walking on it all day, there was no sagging.

Also do I need blocking in the trusses where the plywood sit?

[Jeff922]

I used 5/8" OSB with H-clips on my roof.  The clips serve two functions:  1) they provide a 1/8" expansion gap for seasonal/moisture movement.  If you look on the grade stamp of any sheet of OSB or Ply, you will see the requirements for the expansion gap.  2)  they provide support and eliminate the need for time-consuming blocking (in most situations).

A third advantage, and this is just my own opinion, is that they reduce the "bounce" when manually nailing shingles.  For this reason I used H-clips on my walls; I'm going to hand-nail cedar shingles for siding.

In your case, T&G addresses all of the issues I mentioned - so I think you should be fine.  It's better to overbuild than underbuild.  My neighbor across the road had a house built by a "professional" builder who spaced rafters 24"oc and used 7/16" OSB sheathing.  There is now visible sagging between rafters (which might also indicate a venting problem). 

[bayview]

   Most everyone is using 7/16" OSB or chipboard for roofing.   I prefer ½" CDX plywood.   I had roofed our garage with ½" CDX with the trusses 24" on center.   I felt like I was going to fall through the roof . . .    I then used the CDX on our cabin, but with the trusses 16" on center.   It was "rock solid".

  I personally would use 5/8" if trusses were 24" on center.

  The h-clips are used for proper spacing between sheets and helps to firm up the sheets between trusses. . .  

http://www.strongtie.com/products/connectors/PSCL-PSCA.asp  

/

[OlJarhead]

I used 7/16" on our cabin and forgot the H-Clips on the first half and remembered them on the 2nd half...DOH!

However, I would have preferred that I used 1/2" and I'd argue that T&G would be better then clips.  But then I'd also rather I'd gone with the 2x8 floor too haha....actually, not really.  I keep having to remind myself that A: this is a cabin and will only ever be a cabin in a remote mountain location and B: I want to build more cabins to go with this one and if the 2x6 floor and 7/16 roof works fiine then it will save me a few bucks.

However, if I choose to build a cabin that I might live in then I'm going with a 2x10 floor, 2x10 rafters and 5/8" roof sheeting!

[rocking23nf]

I did a 2x12 floor, and its only a 12x12 cabin, I overbuilt. But theres very little bounce the floor. And i did a triple 2x12 beam.

[mountainmomma]

We used 5/8 CDX with the 5/8 H-clips. I was very happy with the results. That's with 24" spacing engineered trusses, 9 on 12 roof.

[Hi Road]

H-clip information can be found at the below address for Teco products.  Note the chart at the bottom of the pdf showing live load (snow in my case) carrying capacity for the various spans and thicknesses of roof sheeting. 

My snow load is 95# and I used 7/16" osb with 12" oc rafters (12:12 pitch).  I extended every other rafter past the top plate for an eav overhang.


www.tecotested.com/techtips/pdf/tt_edgeclips

John