Anyone know the history of this product or what it is made of? Tearing off vinal siding and what appears to be old wood siding and wondering if this has good nail holding properties. Seems to but never seen this before. House was built in 1965
Vintage Sheathing
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This is a quote from another site, purported to be from Johns Manville. It is an early 60's product. Not sure I'd use it.
“An extra strong 1/2″ insulating board sheathing made of bitumen-impregranted wood fiber; comes in 4’x8′ and 9′ sizes; used as a sheathing for exterior walls and as an interior or exterior siding for utility structures; combines exceptional nail holding strength with insulating value.”
“An extra strong 1/2″ insulating board sheathing made of bitumen-impregranted wood fiber; comes in 4’x8′ and 9′ sizes; used as a sheathing for exterior walls and as an interior or exterior siding for utility structures; combines exceptional nail holding strength with insulating value.”
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It's a fiber board, cheaper than plywood and has been replaced with OSB now. It was used on walls and roofs. I would think it would hold nails fine but you could do a pull out test of sorts your self. It wasn't made with asbestos but made in the same plant and same machines as the old asbestos cement board and there could be a little cross contamination but that would be little at best.
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Appears similar to a product that was also called Celotex back in the day.
Thanx for the replies and good to know. I'm redoing a screened in porch so will likely just leave this in place and cover with new lap siding.
At some point I will redo the siding on exterior of the house. If this stuff looks in good condition I would think to just leave in place and just wrap it or is there any benefit to replace this then with plywood?
At some point I will redo the siding on exterior of the house. If this stuff looks in good condition I would think to just leave in place and just wrap it or is there any benefit to replace this then with plywood?
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If it has held up siding for 50 years I would leave it.
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It was called nail base sheathing but it didn’t hold nails very well. Some homes has asbestos siding installed over it and the siding fell off. I made a ton of money stripping those houses and residing them. That siding has nail holes that don’t fall on studs. There were lots of lawsuits and I think a class action lawsuit in the 1970s, then it went away. Ryan Homes built thousands of houses with it. It is not bad to have, it just doesn’t hold nails and it is not structural for racking resistance. Some builders diagonally braced corners and some substituted plywood at braced panel corners. A lot of places had no building code or very basic codes in those days. Use long nails and stud nail siding and it is fine. Their mistake was calling it nail base, I could pull out nails with my thumb and finger. It is like bitumen infused homosote board. It was popular in the late 1950s to the 1970s. It was cheaper than plywood in an era when OSB was not available and exterior plywood wasn’t as good as it is today. It also insulated better than plywood and some was called insulating sheathing. Those were the days when 2” of insulation was considered excessive and heating oil was 15 cents per gallon. It tended to shrink a little opening joints. Put housewrap over it to keep the wind out, then stud nail siding. It will be fine.
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