paint smooth or rough side of OSB?

[olson14]

Hi all.

I'm putting up OSB in my garage to panel the walls. I like the OSB because it doesn't warp like plywood and it's reasonably priced. My question is if anyone has had experience painting either the rough or the smooth side.

The rough will certainly soak up (a lot) of primer and paint. The smooth side would be nice in terms of wash down. Will the primer stick? I've tried a small section and it appears to be OK.

Any experience out there?

best, Ols

[Pop]

Yeah, the smooth side will paint fine; prime first of course.

[Norminn]

I would paint all sides for such use. Any moisture will be absorbed and make the OSB expand and fall apart. Plywood better, IMO.

[olson14]

Well it's all interior, so I'm not expecting any moisture aside from a light washing. Thanks for the input.

It looks like my painted test spot is holding on the smooth side.

Ols

[Colbyt]

Paint the slick side. The rough side will soak up more paint and you may have some flaking of the wood slices as the paint soaks the board.

For the naysayers, I built a small storage shed in 1990 using OSB as the finish siding, primed and painted it once in 10 years. It is still going strong.

[olson14]

Thanks for all of the input. When I get some more done, I'll post some pictures. I went with the smooth side out. It's working great. I talked with some construction dudes and their assessment was that OSB is as strong as plywood and in the hot and humid midwest, it handles warping better. Who knows though. It's a lot cheaper at this point in time probably because it's surpassed plywood in sales in the past few years. Time will tell... Ols

[nospambob]