Stud wall construction help

[=Adam=]

Hi all,

I'm looking for a bit of advice.....

I'm in the middle of building a small office in my garage. I'm building three stud walls (the other being the existing cavity wall of the house). The plan is to insulate the stud wall, and to use an electric heater if the office space. The walls will be glad in OSB on both sides.

What I'm not clear on is whether I need to apply a breather membrane to the 'external' face?

The external faces are all inside of the garage, so won't we exposed to the elements.

Do you think there is a need for a membrane? And if so, would it be better to install the membrane before the OSB on the external face so that I can still use the raw OSB face for shelving etc.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Fitzroy]

A breather membrane acts as a secondary barrier to water ingress should any rain get past a slate roof or primary exterior wall material. A barrier membrane is often used in wall construction to prevent moisture moving through the wall from a warm humid space to a cold space. The moisture will condense out and cause interstitial dampness.

It’s not clear to me from your description what you are precisely doing so can’t provide any better answer, sorry.

Fitz

 

[Lons]

You don't need a membrane on internal walls.
An electric heater produces dry heat but you should still allow for some form of ventilation as from your description there will be no external window.

 

[owen]

You don't need OSB either side of the wall either, why not just use plasterboard?

 

[=Adam=]

Thanks all. Yes ventilation is covered as I'm including a vent to allow airflow.

Essentially the easiest way I could have explained this is that I'm creating an internal timber stud wall, one side of the wall will be heated, the other won't. I'm not doing anything with the roof, other than boarding the underside, as it is the existing flat roof of the garage.

The preference for OSB is so that I can hang things on the wall easily.

 

[Doug B]

personally I wouldn’t bother with the OSB on the outer leaf, if you’re using foil backed insulation between the studs that acts as a vapour barrier as will the OSB on the inner leaf.
If you wanted to put a plastic membrane behind the OSB you could but as it’s not a high humidity environment it’s not critical.

 

[RichardG]

I would look at using plywood, the extra cost is minimal but you will get a nice finish and can still hang things on the wall. Make the vent adjustable.

 

[Lons]

I'd suggest you also insulate between the roof joists and do something with the floor otherwise the benefit of wall insulation will be lost. I'd put down insulation on the floor with a timber or laminate floating floor over, depending on the office size it's likely the floor won't be level in any case as they always slope to the door in case of liquid spillage so you'll need to address that.

You'll get the extra cost back over time with reduced heating and a much more comfortable working environment. Is the office for the purpose of working from home due to restrictions Adam?

 

[Doug B]

I'd suggest you also insulate between the roof joists and do something with the floor otherwise the benefit of wall insulation will be lost. I'd put down insulation on the floor with a timber or laminate floating floor over, depending on the office size it's likely the floor won't be level in any case as they always slope to the door in case of liquid spillage so you'll need to address that.

You'll get the extra cost back over time with reduced heating and a much more comfortable working environment. Is the office for the purpose of working from home due to restrictions Adam?

Completely agree with Bob, I’d also check the floor has a damp proof membrane before building anything.