Shop Interior Wall Panel choices

[ETD66SS]

I am building a "barndominium" ( I hate that term but it's what they are called I guess) and need to start thinking about the final solution for the shop interior walls.

I have trimed out all the OH door openings with white steel so that no lumber will be showing when the walls are finalized.

For the garage and lower workshop area where there is living space above, the walls will be drywall.

For the shop, my initial thought was white corrugated steel from the floor to the ceiling. However, I started to think about a plywood wainscoating that I would paint white. Otherwise there would be 18 ft tall white steel panels that if the bottoms were to get damaged from pushing workbenches/cabinets/equipment against them, fork truck etc, they would be hard and costly to replace. The plywood is not going to dent like the 26 GA steel.

Initial thought was sideways plywood for a 4ft tall wainscoatinng matching the outside wainscoating height. But then I got to thinking that 4ft high might be enough to mount outlet boxes above workbenches, but then no room to mount racks to hang tools etc. If I go vertical with the plywood and have an 8ft wainscoating that is the height of some of the interior doors and would look wierd. Going to 10ft long sheets of plywood would fix the 8ft door opening height issue but then there would be more plywood on the walls than the steel and might look even weirder...

My initial goal was to not have to paint anything on the inside of the shop, hence the full height steel panels.

I'm wondering what others have done, and what they like/don't like about their choices.

 

[dodge man]

My shop is 28x30 feet, only a 8 foot high ceiling. No living space, just a garage that’s wood framed. I have OSB all the way around inside. As I recall primed and one coat of white paint. It doesn’t take paint all that great but it helps with lighting. It’s pretty durable and you can screw into it anywhere. Wainscoting would look really good and plywood up higher would work out good. You could do steel on the ceiling. I’m pretty cheap sometimes so I’d probably go with a cheaper option. I look at it like it’s just a garage/shop. Function over form. If your going to live there a long time though and want a nice looking place it might be worth spending the extra money to look good.

 

[jmc]

Where steel siding is appropriate, you might look into perforated steel siding for sound damping. Fine hole pattern allows some sound to hit the wall insulation behind it. In my shop, one room is a bottom 4' of plywood with drywall for the top 6'. The other room is perforated steel the full 10'. First room has an echo and the second room is deadened.

Don't know the cost difference but the supplier may precut the lengths; no paint, no drywall finishing. Factory color choices too.

 

[Runner]

I think the code will require fire-resistive construction on the walls/ceilings between the "shop" (which they will consider to be a garage) and the living space. This will probably need to be gypsum board.

CHAPTER 3 BUILDING PLANNING - 2024 INTERNATIONAL RESIDENTIAL CODE (IRC)

ICC Digital Codes is the largest provider of model codes, custom codes and standards used worldwide to construct safe, sustainable, affordable and resilient structures.

codes.iccsafe.org

See Table R302.6.
You can attach whatever you want over the gyp. board.

Cutting holes for outlet and fixture boxes into steel panels is a pain. If I were lining my shop with steel panels, I would think about surface mounted conduit for the wiring.

If I already had to have gyp. board walls ceilings, but wanted a more durable surface down low, I might just apply OSB or plywood over the gyp. board as a wainscot.

 

[ETD66SS]

I think the code will require fire-resistive construction on the walls/ceilings between the "shop" (which they will consider to be a garage) and the living space. This will probably need to be gypsum board.

CHAPTER 3 BUILDING PLANNING - 2024 INTERNATIONAL RESIDENTIAL CODE (IRC)

ICC Digital Codes is the largest provider of model codes, custom codes and standards used worldwide to construct safe, sustainable, affordable and resilient structures.

codes.iccsafe.org

See Table R302.6.
You can attach whatever you want over the gyp. board.

Cutting holes for outlet and fixture boxes into steel panels is a pain. If I were lining my shop with steel panels, I would think about surface mounted conduit for the wiring.

If I already had to have gyp. board walls ceilings, but wanted a more durable surface down low, I might just apply OSB or plywood over the gyp. board as a wainscot.

Fire code allows me to double up the gypsum on the inside of the garage or put a layer under the steel on the shop side, I'm going to do the latter.

And yes, all the shop electrical will be surface mount.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

I used fire retardant 1/2" plywood on my walls. So far I can't see where I dis-like anything. However, I would probably choose OSB over plywood if I had it to do over again. OSB is more consistent. It doesn't have any knot voids and has a more uniform appearance compared to the plywood I used. I like that I can mount things to and through it easily. I used screws to attach the 2nd half I installed so I can replace a single sheet easily or get behind them easily for maintenance of water or electric.

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[Runner]

Fire code allows me to double up the gypsum on the inside of the garage or put a layer under the steel on the shop side, I'm going to do the latter.

Sounds good. I like the look of steel panels for a shop. I lined the walls and ceiling of my shop with white steel for the long sides and gyp. board on the short sides.

 

[ETD66SS]

I used fire retardant 1/2" plywood on my walls. So far I can't see where I dis-like anything. However, I would probably choose OSB over plywood if I had it to do over again. OSB is more consistent. It doesn't have any knot voids and has a more uniform appearance compared to the plywood I used. I like that I can mount things to and through it easily. I used screws to attach the 2nd half I installed so I can replace a single sheet easily or get behind them easily for maintenance of water or electric.

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I was curious about plywood vs. OSB.

It seems like plywood is better for mounting things, while OSB does have a flatter surface, screws can pull out easier?

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

I'm not honestly sure if screws would pull out easier on OSB, the plywood I used may even be worse in that regard also. My screw comment was just about how mounted the plywood to the framing. The first half I installed I used ring shank nails. It was faster but I did not think about how I would get behind them if I ever needed to. I used screws on the 2nd half after I had a while using the shop with just the East side totally finished. The more I thought about it, I figured it would be better to take the additional time to use screws. That way if I ever need to add a high amp receptacle, insulate, add reinforcement/blocking for something large I may want to hang on the wall in the future, etc. I could do that with a lot less effort and not destroy the sheets in the process.

If I had a better grade of plywood that may have been better also. What I used is for exterior wall sheathing under siding or brick. It had a bunch of voids and knots. Knots under the screws keep the screw from seating all the way flush, that annoyed me but it wasn't a big deal really. I generally used longer screws when that happened and cranked them on down. When I tried cranking the shorter screws on past the knot they would generally strip out of the wall studs, the longer ones didn't.

I should have started a new paragraph on mounting things to the walls. With the wood panels, OSB or plywood, since they are flat you can just mount what you want wherever you want to.

 

[EddieWalker]

I used OSB on the walls in my shop so I could hang or install stuff to it without having to find a stud. That worked, but it never looked nice and I feel it absorbed the light. I painted OSB on another project and didn't care for the look. There isn't any way to make OSB look nice.

On my garage I realized that I really didn't need to be able to hang stuff anywhere I wanted. Mostly I have metal shelving racks for storage and it doesn't matter where the studs are. I did that in sheetrock and painted the walls white. I like that a lot better then I like the OSB!!!

When I build my dream workshop, I'm going to use sheetrock again. There just isn't any real reason to spend the money on OSB or plywood for the walls just to be able to avoid finding a stud when I want to attach something to the wall.

Whatever you do, be sure to paint the walls white so it makes the area as bright as possible!!!!!