OSB + Paint

What is the best way to Paint OSB so that the wood texture doesn’t show? Would coat of oil based primer then a skim coat be best?

Nothing will hide that texture. Oil base primer will be the best to keep it from swelling and showing the texture even more.

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1: sand the shit out of it
2: skim coat
3: sand the shit out of it
4: say fuck this crap and go by a piece of ply wood ha ha but seriously if you sand with a course belt you might be able to skim coat with copious amounts of putty a nice surface there’s just so many voids, what’s the project? Could always veneer


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You won’t be able to get ride of the texture.

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If your absolutely going to do this remember OSB has a smoother surface and a rougher surface. Try to keep everything the same side out before painting. My old basement shop had OSB walls that I built for cost reasons. I painted the OSB without oil base primer as @overanalyze suggested and had several bubbles appear. In my case, I didn’t care I was trying to make a solid wall that could support multiple shelves. But if for some reason I did care about appearance and felt I wanted to put OSB down (which no matter what, looks like crap) I should have put the primer down.

does it have to be painted? you could apply oil varnish which will give you a very interesting look. you will have many different wood tones. iv done both. i oil prime than give it multiple cts of skim cts [pain in the ass]. i use dura-a-bond 90 which dries alot harder than regular joint compound. stay as smooth as possible because its harder to sand than reg. joint compound. than prime again before putting finish on. if just hiding the texture is the issure, you could use one of those texture paints and then be done with it.

Jronman wrote:

What is the best way to Paint OSB so that the wood texture doesn’t show? Would coat of oil based primer then a skim coat be best?

@JimboS1ice The customer wants me to duplicate a painted shelving unit and then add a couple doors to it. Apart from the back panel which is 1/4 in everything else is 3/4 material. I don’t have a picture but it is pretty basic.

I thought it was maybe made with OSB but after seeing and hearing about painting OSB I’m thinking I misjudged what material it was. I know that it wasn’t made with plywood because I was able to find some end grain in the back. I’m guessing a type of particle board was used. I also made the mistake of buying the OSB before checking into painting OSB so now I have 4 sheets of OSB in my garage that I’m not sure what to do with. If I were able to return the OSB, would MDF be a more cost effective option to plywood? I would think it would be easier to paint and look nice than it would OSB. It would also be stronger than particleboard. I read it soaks up latex paint so I would probably have to seal it somehow. I not sure what all my local lumberyard sells for 4’x8′ material. I’m still trying to learn what they got. I’m not sure if they got MDF or plywood. Plywood would be the best option I’m guessing. 

I really wouldn’t build anything out of MDF. It isn’t very strong structurally and will swell up if there’s any humidity at all, even if laminated.  I can’t tell you how many kids cabinets and cheap shelves I’ve replaced because the MDF had swollen or doors had torn off with use. 

I’d go with plywood if you can and save the headache. 

Jronman wrote:

10 hours ago, Jronman said:

@JimboS1ice The customer wants me to duplicate a painted shelving unit and then add a couple doors to it. Apart from the back panel which is 1/4 in everything else is 3/4 material. I don’t have a picture but it is pretty basic.

 

I thought it was maybe made with OSB but after seeing and hearing about painting OSB I’m thinking I misjudged what material it was. I know that it wasn’t made with plywood because I was able to find some end grain in the back. I’m guessing a type of particle board was used. I also made the mistake of buying the OSB before checking into painting OSB so now I have 4 sheets of OSB in my garage that I’m not sure what to do with. If I were able to return the OSB, would MDF be a more cost effective option to plywood? I would think it would be easier to paint and look nice than it would OSB. It would also be stronger than particleboard. I read it soaks up latex paint so I would probably have to seal it somehow. I not sure what all my local lumberyard sells for 4’x8′ material. I’m still trying to learn what they got. I’m not sure if they got MDF or plywood. Plywood would be the best option I’m guessing. 

I’d make the carcasses out of ply and if your insistent on Mdf just do the doors with it. Personally I like hardwood rails and stiles and the Mdf could be the panel.  They make some decent primers that will cover without bubbling. MDF carcasses can be pretty scary they don’t have a lot of strength in joints and moisture kills them. Remember your name will be associated with the cabinets when you present the final product.

As I wrote that you have to think costs too. If it costs too much good bye profit. Just my two cents dude.

@ChrisK what I need to copy is actually frameless. I will try to get some ply. The cabinet I am copying is cheap but nicer than Walmart cheap. Apparently I’m not making profit I’ve been told it is going to be volunteer. 

Decided I would keep 2 of the 4 pieces I bought to use to fix a basic workbench in my garage then I returned 2 pieces to my local lumber yard and ask for a good plywood for painting and came back with 3 pieces of ac plywood.

Why not just pick up some birch ply? With ac plywood you only have one good side, the other will have flaws. Unless only one side will be visible …

SetBuilder wrote:

On 8/24/2017 at 9:15 PM, SetBuilder said:

Why not just pick up some birch ply? With ac plywood you only have one good side, the other will have flaws. Unless only one side will be visible …

 

I really wish I could use baltic birch – it’s got so many more layers than the plywood I can usually get but most everything I build is for little people and I don’t want to use plywood with formaldehyde in the glue. I’ve found one decent yard here that sells some nice maple faced plywood that’s formaldehyde free but it’s not BB. 

SetBuilder wrote:

On 8/24/2017 at 8:15 PM, SetBuilder said:

Why not just pick up some birch ply? With ac plywood you only have one good side, the other will have flaws. Unless only one side will be visible …

 

well this was the best they had.

khariV wrote:

19 hours ago, khariV said:

I really wish I could use baltic birch – it’s got so many more layers than the plywood I can usually get but most everything I build is for little people and I don’t want to use plywood with formaldehyde in the glue. I’ve found one decent yard here that sells some nice maple faced plywood that’s formaldehyde free but it’s not BB. 

Baltic birch get very expensive. I had a project at work and they had me use Baltic birch. 5 4×8 sheets was 700.00.  There is a place by me that sells Baltic birch in 5×5 sheets for around 55.00

Standard birch ply that has a nice paintable surface cost me 25.00 from work and around 35 +, from a lumber yard.

Well,Using oil-based paint is fundamental. Simply painting the OSB like you would paint pressed wood will leave the OSB harsher and the paint will seep through ordinary preliminary, while utilizing water-based paint makes the OSB strip after some time.