Whoa - Siding without sheathing?

[RayN]

Recently one of my kids teachers when on a Habit-For-Humanity type trip in the rural south.  I saw his pictures and was surprised.

They framed out the walls and just added tar-paper (builders felt) and then put a T-111 type siding right over that!  No plywood or osb sheathing.

The house was a pretty simple shed room, one room deep about three room wide - say 12x38 about single-wide size.  They did start insulating and I saw sheetrock ready to go up.

I was surprised,  I've seen some pretty wavy T-111 type stuff on sheds around here.  I realize plywood and osb are pretty expensive,  can it be used as an "all in one" product for warm climes or a 3-season inexpensive cabin?

[jdew]

That's why its used - you can kill two birds with one stone.  One of the main purposes of sheathing is to stiffen the structure and keep it from racking.  You can also apply other types of siding like lap siding right to the studs if you use some other sort of bracing (let-in bracing).  Personally I'd use some kind of foam board between it and the studs but its not required.

[w0ace]

Yeap, that's what we are going to do, T-111 over Tyvek wrap, that's it!  No other wasted material in the walls.  I looked at the way houses are built and can't believe it.  They waste more than they use alot of time in OVERBUILDING.  If you built a airplane or boat like a house, well....You can guess what would happen.

[jraabe]

Nothing wrong with single wall construction. Use the details the manufactures supply for z-flashing, etc.

You can even add trim corner boards and belly bands to dress it up if you want.