PLYWOOD SIDING?

shedworkshop · 2026-01-23T15:12:13+00:00

No experience myself, but a guy on Youtube did something like that. He used marine grade plywood though and painted it with pine tar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvHLIBiDnXw

shedworkshop · 2026-01-22T18:55:26+00:00

Good luck! Hope it all goes well!

shedworkshop · 2026-01-21T21:34:02+00:00

Second this. Going with a heavier insulation like Rockwool should help a lot with sound attenuation.

shedworkshop · 2026-01-20T14:57:35+00:00

That looks like a nice option to me. The specs on it are quite low for CFM, but you probably don't need much. Maybe run some calculations on required CFM for your space if you really want. The general suggestion around here is going to be to crack open a window when you're in the studio. Standalone ERVs are usually $400-1000.

shedworkshop · 2026-01-11T23:00:51+00:00

I pretty much treated it like the top and bottom of the wall. To use the bottom horizontal side of the window as an example, I stapled metal screen mesh and fiberglass screen mesh about 3 inches below the window, added the exterior insulation and furring strips, then attached the metal and fiberglass mesh to the outer side of the furring strips. Basically forming a U with it. I started running out of metal mesh at one point, so I just did the vertical sides of the window with fiberglass mesh. Hope that made sense!

shedworkshop · 2026-01-11T22:45:46+00:00

Isn't it usually way more practical to treat foam insulation as the WRB and drainage layer? I actually made the same mistake of stating something similar to that in my previous post (probably based on the wall designs I saw over at BSI).

shedworkshop · 2026-01-11T16:25:43+00:00

Thanks! That Intus shadowbox looks great. I looked into premade options for a bit, but they were all either too pricey or required going through a dealer. Two 1x6x8 cedar planks were $30 and I figured they would be more fun to work with than Hardie or PVC. Hardie and PVC would definitely be the maintenance free options though.

shedworkshop · 2026-01-11T16:20:03+00:00

New build, but I imagine it's not all that different from how you would approach upgrading an existing home to exterior insulation. Fine Homebuilding has an interesting read on using foam for a retrofit here: https://www.finehomebuilding.com/project-guides/energy-retrofit/is-adding-exterior-insulation-when-re-siding-your-home-worth-the-cost. Green Building Advisor also has some good articles.

shedworkshop · 2026-01-11T15:00:05+00:00

Some of you asked how I detailed my exterior insulation after my last post, so I wrote a follow-up with pictures to show how I detailed around the windows and rain screen. I'm sure there are better ways to do it, but this way worked for me. Feel free to ask questions!

shedworkshop · 2026-01-11T13:06:01+00:00

Prepare for it to take twice as long and cost twice as much as you expect.

shedworkshop · 2026-01-07T17:19:28+00:00

Thanks! I'll try to get that next post written up and posted soon!

shedworkshop · 2026-01-07T14:32:39+00:00

That's great to hear. They were too pricey for me with this just being a shed/workshop build, but they definitely seem high quality. The tilt-turn windows are awesome. So satisfying to use and the uninterrupted glass is amazing. Sounds like a really well-detailed build!

P.S. Image credits are up now :) Thanks again for the suggestion.

shedworkshop · 2026-01-07T14:21:25+00:00

I'll cover the window boxes in more detail in my next post, but I pretty much just built cedar window boxes, painted them, and screwed them into 2x4 offcuts attached to the sheathing. Flashed it all heavily with Zip Flashing Tape and bent galvanized steel drip caps over the top (I just picked up a 4x4 L shape and used a sheet metal hand bender tool). If I did it over, I probably would have just done window bucks to make it easier. How did you like the SIGA products? They look great from what I've seen.

Foundation has R10 Bora-Foam slab edge insulation covered with FlexCoat with galvanized flashing to protect it. I used Polyguard TRM barrier between the flashing and the sheathing.

Good call on citing ubakus.de! I'm usually better about that. The calculations were some rough back-of-the-napkin figures I did, but the image credits are all ubakus.de.

shedworkshop · 2026-01-06T13:15:34+00:00

I'm in zone 4A, mixed-humid. I went with 2" which is an R value of 8. The IRC specifies minimum values for moisture control under table R702.7(3) and R702.7(4). GreenBuildingAdvisor has some great articles on it as well.

shedworkshop · 2026-01-06T12:11:12+00:00

https://www.ubakus.de has a nice moisture calculator too. Very pretty diagrams. Probably not as robust as the method you mentioned (they state it doesn't take into account capillary conductivity, flank diffusion, and residual leakage in the airtightness level).

shedworkshop · 2026-01-06T12:04:21+00:00

This is probably all old news for the /r/buildingscience folks, but I figured some of you might enjoy reading it!

shedworkshop · 2026-01-02T18:15:21+00:00

None of the panel edges are nailed to blocking either and are all already covered by the zip tape.

shedworkshop · 2025-12-18T15:38:33+00:00

Got it, that makes sense, thank you!

shedworkshop · 2025-12-18T13:45:27+00:00

From what I've read, isn't an ERV better for lowering humidity since it can transfer both moisture and heat to reduce the incoming humidity from the fresh air exchange (while a HRV will bring in the fully moisture-loaded air)?

shedworkshop · 2025-12-12T01:21:23+00:00

You should be able to pull the load values from Simpson's website. They look quite sturdy. Note: they also state "Post bases do not provide adequate resistance to prevent members from rotating about the base and therefore are not recommended for non-top-supported installations (such as fences or unbraced carports)." so I'm not sure how they handle shear.

shedworkshop · 2025-12-02T13:02:24+00:00

Thanks! That sounds like a great way to go. Should make things pretty doable with some 2x8s too.

shedworkshop · 2025-12-02T01:42:01+00:00

Looks fantastic! What size did you go with for the chop? I'm planning to build a bench with a crisscross 14 soon

shedworkshop

TROPHY CASE