On Oct 16, 11:39 am, "
wrote:
In this particular property the third floor is a an attic with a
standard stairwell so people commonly use it as a bedroom. Since it
is hot in the attic people tend to leave the windows open. The first
good multi-day rain or torrential downpour with a cross breeze and
enough water can blow in to ruin the ceiling below. Once there was a
cup on the windowsill and it collected well over an inch of water
during such a session (maybe 2). The floor is made out of 1" oak T&G
floor boards and the water just drips straight through. If I wanted
to fix the problem I could nail down plywood and then glue down
linoleum so that the water didn't pass through the floor... but then I
would be replacing linoleum instead of ceilings. In other properties
people overflow the toilet, don't pay for more fuel oil and let the
pipes burst, or stop up the tub with paper towels and turn it on full
blast before they leave the house after being evicted and then claim
vandals must have broken in and done it after they vacated. Sometimes
there's a roof leak but normally it's a man-made disaster.

One thing right off: OSB isn't going to be any more resistant to water
than drywall. Soaks it up like a sponge in my experience.

IMHO those little wire brads are not going to cut it, no matter how
many you put up there. They're just going to pull right out the first
time your degenerate tenants leave the windows open in the attic. When
the board falls, it'll probably hit someone in the head, and you'll
end up with a lawsuit on your hands.

Plywood, 1/2" or thicker so they can't throw stuff through it, and
drywall screws are the only way to go here. You can get the screws out
and let the board down without damaging it when you need to. If you
nail it up, then you have to force a pry bar under a seam, half-
destroy the board in prying it down, and then you'll have hundreds of
little nails to bend over or pound out.

1/4" plywood will be easier to put up, but then they can throw stuff
through it. Sounds like your typical tenants are that type of people...