VIDEO SHEATHING THE WALLS*

In this video I want to give you some tips about sheathing the walls of your

smokehouse. Now I've spoken in other parts of the course about my

preference for using one and a half inch thick solid wood for wall and roof

sheathing. It's strong and solid and it hides fasteners and it doesn't

have urea formaldehyde glue in it like sheet materials do. So it's my preference

Now I mentioned also in other spots in the course that I feel perfectly fine

using current modern-day pressure treated lumber for these boards certainly down at the bottom if not the whole way up. Now that's because nowadays

the pressure treating chemicals are copper based and I don't think there's

any issue with toxicity in my opinion in a situation like this. You may feel

differently. You might want to use cedar but if you are using some sort of

pressure treated material this bottom course is going to be in full contact

with the soil. In fact you're going to be building up a little bit of soil inside

here to make a raised floor. There's going to be some splashing from rain on

the outside. So if you want to be very diligent, I mean this is my

recommendation, you'd go with what they call a pressure treated lumber here on

the bottom course that's made for pressure treated wood foundations. Now believe it or not in many parts of the world you can build a foundation, an

underground foundation out of wood using the right kind of pressure treated

lumber. It never rots essentially. They treat it so well that it just doesn't

rot ever even in full contact. So the bottom course you might want to consider

that material there if you're building for the long haul like I always do

Another thing to pay attention to here is to start these bottom courses

especially to start them off so they're level because they're going to set the

stage for everything else that goes higher. Even still, put a level on your

boards say just before you install the third or fourth course because even if

you started the first course level it's conceivable you'll start getting out of

level eventually and you can steer it back a bit over the next few courses if

you are out of whack. So check that. Now also when you're cutting boards to

length you've got long planks and you need to cut boards say for these side

pieces or the back or or these little pieces on either side of the door. When

you're cutting lumber out of a plank always pay attention to the quality of

wood at what will be the end of the parts. So in this case what's the wood

like here? What's the wood like here? And when I say what's the wood like I mean

is it clear or does it have some knots in it or something? You know knots might

look nice but they're also structurally unstable and it can be you can cause the

board to split if there's a knot here and you happen to drive a screw or nail

through it. So position your boards so that any knots and swirly grain and

defects and things are are away from the end points as well at least. If there's

one that lands on on this mid post here then that's that's no big deal but but

the ends you do have to pay attention to and best practices dictate that you try

to make that as clear as possible. Now should you use screws or nails to

fasten these boards? Well either will work. I think in a case like this I would

I would use if I could nails with driven with an air nailer or some sort of

hoseless power nailer that would work fine. My policy is always to use

galvanized fasteners even when strictly speaking I don't need to. Like for

instance you could use regular plain un-galvanized fasteners for these these boards and presumably you're going to be covering the outside with cedar shingles

to give it some extra weather protection. So technically those nails shouldn't get

wet but my feeling is you know the the added expense is minuscule and what

happens if you know if one day a hundred years from now someone comes along and

wants to refurbish this old forgotten smokehouse and the cedar shingles are

all worn out and falling off and and the roof boards have been exposed to the

weather for the last 25 years who knows. Your choice of rust resistant rust

proof galvanized fasteners could be the difference between being able to refurbish this or not. I mean regular plain fasteners might be all rusted

out and you know why not do the future a little bit of a favor spend a few extra

pennies on on fast always on fasteners that resist corrosion. I don't see any

reason not to really. So one other thing this this gable treatment here these are

thick boards and they are going to fasten to the face of rafters

There will be in in the real smokehouse there would be a rafter here and a

rafter here and that's what secures the end of these roof boards. Because you've

made that with thick material you don't need any more backing other than that it's strong enough to be self-supporting. However install these boards after you

have installed the rafters and the reason for that is because the rafters

will will give you a guide. So you put the rafter there the rafters in place

it's nailed down you lay down your board you mark a pencil line here following

the rafter here following the rafter you take it down you cut it you put it back

nail it to the rafter continue on up and do the next one. That's the most

efficient way to do this and you'll find that you get a nice fit and the roof

boards will go on properly without riding on any extra wood that might be

present here from the gable sheathing