"Eric R Snow" wrote in message
...
| This is sorta on topic because its for walls in a machine shop. My
| shop is a steel building. Inside are steel stud walls that hold the
| insulation. Flammable materials, such as acetone, alcohol, and solvent
| are present is less than 1 gallon quantities or in a fire protected
| parts washer. The other flammable stuff in the shop consists of papers
| and cutting oil. So I don't really see a fire hazard in the shop. It
| is a no smoking shop. There is a weld area but it is away from
| anything that can burn. And all stick welding and torch cutting of
| metal is done outside. All that being said, is there a reason NOT to
| use 3/8 cdx on the walls instead of 5/8 drywall? It seems to me that
| the plywood would be more durable and less likely to suffer any damage
| from things banging into it than drywall. Also, the plywood doesn't
| need to be taped. Painting and caulking is all the plywood would need.
| The shop is full of machines which is one of the reasons I'd like to
| avoid taping, mudding, and sanding. All that dust. And labor costs
| would be substantially higher with the drywall. I can't do it myself
| for at least 6 weeks but I can hire someone to get it done next week.
| Thank You,
| Eric R Snow

Put up sheetrock then a 1/4" or less piece of plywood over it. The
sheetrock provides fire resistance, happy inspectors, and some degree of
noise and thermal insulation. With the plywood you can put all kinds of
stuff on it, paint, tools, or whatever. Perfectly legal as well as
functional.
Getting to the point where sheetrock is cheaper than plywood anyway.