Steel clad wooden frame wall

gutteruu

I'm building a shed where one wall has to be a wooden framed steel clad wall. Its the condensation issue I'm getting bogged down on. Ideally I would like to insulate between the studs and fix plywood to inside.

If I fix steel cladding straight onto the wooden frame surely I will get a lot of condensation build up and rot in the frame ? I was thinking about putting some plastic sheeting over the frame before fixing steel cladding, but would this work or be sufficient? Do I need to have frame>plastic sheeting>battons>steel cladding?

Thanks

cork2

I reckon with plastic sheeting the frame may sweat, therefore you'd need to switch plastic for breather membrane and to counteract the condensation you need ventilation. if you stood the timber frame, insulated it and fixed you ply wood and covered it with breather and then battened the ply wood and fixed your steel to the battens you'd have an air gap inbetween which should eliminate condensation then you need to fit vents or fly screen top and bottom to allow the air through but not vermin and insects.

gutteruu

I figured it would need some form of airspace but was nervous of the wood (battens/ply) outside of the stud in the airspace rotting in time. I have almost no access to wall once its up as shed is being built around it.

cork2

gutteruu wrote: »

I figured it would need some form of airspace but was nervous of the wood (battens/ply) outside of the stud in the airspace rotting in time. I have almost no access to wall once its up as shed is being built around it.

Well make your frame sheet it with ply and wrap it in breather membrane that's that much of it safe from rotting. Use pressure treated battens if you're worried about them outside of the breather but the fact that they are within the air gap there's no fear of them. I recently did a single skin timber frame house and the method was pretty much the same.

gutteruu

Sorry to harp back in but I've been thinking . I can get steel box-iron (u channel used on steel sheds). I could fix steel cladding to it and make a separate stand alone wooden stud wall on inside. I would just line the inside stud with a breathable membrane like roof felt? This would give me an airgap, no rotting, cheaper than ply and easier to install. Sounds about right?

kieran.

Go to any sheeting/flashing manafacturer and get lengths of 1.5m thick galvanised steel top hats instead of timber battens and fix to your ply and in turn your sheeting to the top hats.

gutteruu

Top hats it is. Final question. Do I really need the outside layer of ply as it would add a few hundred quid? Can I not just put roof felt straight onto wooden stud frame and top hats onto that? So it would be

Cladding > Top hats box section > Roof felt > wooden stud frame insulated between frame > ply (on inside)

Ger Byrne 1

you need to use a breathable membrane in the walls between the frame and the steel like -snip-

gutteruu

I thought roofing felt is a breathable membrane?

(That companies site says their membrane is "Tyvek" for anyone stumbling upon this thread)

kieran.

gutteruu wrote: »

Top hats it is. Final question. Do I really need the outside layer of ply as it would add a few hundred quid? Can I not just put roof felt straight onto wooden stud frame and top hats onto that? So it would be

Cladding > Top hats box section > Roof felt > wooden stud frame insulated between frame > ply (on inside)

If it was me I would keep the plywood as it bonds all the studs together in to a composite structure this process is also known as racking the timber frame wall together. An engineer will advise you better on this based on your buildings individual characteristics.