Putting plywood on walls of a metal shed

[DDDDD]

I'm wondering if I could get some advise about putting plywood in my shed.
- The shed is a metal colorbond shed
- The vertical beams at the corners are Z purlins
- The walls all have three tophats running horizontally - one along the top, one along the middle and one near the bottom - approximately 1000mm spacing distance between each. The lips of the top hats are facing inwards so this is what Iwill be attaching to.

1. Is it OK to screw structural plywood straight into these top hats directly - I ask because some manufacturers mention maximum spacings of 600mm, but then with a thinner plywood than I am considering. Some plywood manufactures mention this kind of spacing is ok for use in ceilings. If I use 15mm plywood attached vertically in 2.4m lengths (so each sheet is attached to all tophats) should this be fine? Or would I be advised to use vertical furring and attach to the furring?

2. I see it mentioned on some manufacturer websites that all sides of plywood should be against a joint, except sides that have tongue and groove to connect. What happens if I don't following this advice to the T?


You can see a drawn cross section of the steel tophats here. http://shedblog.com.au/battens-topspan-top-hat-shed-roof-and-wall-battens/

 

[theprinceofdarkness]

Metal sheds normally suffer very badly from condensation. have you any plans to cope with this? Have you considered using P5 grade flooring boards . They are a higher grade tongue and groove chipboard which is damp resistant.
Just had second thoughts, one metre between line of fixings is a lot, even for 15mm ply. What do you intend to do with this shed? I would be very tempted to put in vertical 2 X 1s (roofing laths), every 400mm so you can screw adjacent vertical edges to it.
Floor , Ceiling?, insulation?
Frank

 

[DDDDD]

Being a metal shed with holes everywhere I don't think I'll bother much about trying to block them all up. So it would just be concrete floor and no ceiling.

I have three goals to achieve.
. 1. Make the shed a little more attractive when we use it for events such as kids parties.
2 Conceal all those tek screws that are coming through.
3. Hang some items on the wall - maybe even a bike so it has to bear load.

I may do something different for each section, but for this section I planned to use structural plywood to bear load anywhere along the wall, then to panel over it with tongue and groove primed pine lengths from Bunnings, which painted should be a nice look. Then for skirts, if damp is a problem then maybe go for some plastic ones or some rubber on the bottom of them.

A water proof sealant should make the ply more durable? Or am I better off with vertical laths followed by horizontal laths then the primed pine straight over that?

 

[theprinceofdarkness]

I do not think your pine will look much after a couple of years due to the condensation dripping on them. They will also expand /contract so may spring from their fixings.
Frank

 

[DDDDD]

Ok, thanks for the tip. I would be disappointed if the wall looked bad after such a short time. In that case, somewhat more expensive but probably worth it, to go for hardwood panels like this https://www.bunnings.com.au/easycra...-vj-semi-external-primed-wall-lining_p0330037

Any suggestion for insulation with a metal shed with low toxicity? Apparently helps reduce condensation but most types say not to moisten. Wool is low toxicity but is it going to cause problems?