I am going through a remodel on the fish house, and am trying to decide if I should pull off the OSB. The house currently has vinyl siding with OSB underneath. I am planning on putting on sheet metal which is going to add a considerable amount of weight versus the vinyl. If I tear off the OSB I am going to lose some of the insulation factor though. Also, if I do tear it off, I am going to have to use 1x4's to nail the sheet metal in order to run the sheets vertically. What do would you guys do?

If it was me and the OSB was in good condition, I would save the labor and cost of the 1x4's and just leave it on.

this is a no brainer. add the 1x,s and remove the osb. no need for the added weight that will end up a rotten mess anyway.

just a question, why are you taking off the vinyl siding? i'm considering that for my house this fall since I can get it for free. is it not holding up?

If you are gutting the whole thing down to studs, you could screw the steel at the top and bottom and then spray foam the inside. That would bond the steel to the studs and make it very rigid. You would not need the 1x's. The down side is that spray foam is spendy. But you'd be saving the extra weight of 1x's. As an option you could use the osb you take off and cut that into strips instead of the 1x's. I prefer the steel over vinyl for the added durability. By using a combo of steel and spray foam you are saving alot of weight over vinyl and osb/plywood sheathing. My $.02. Please post pics if possible, I love seeing other's shacks.

Mediocrates,

I have not had a problem with durability of the vinyl siding. It has to do with more the fact that I don't care for the color that is on there now ( grey/purple trim). I plan on also pulling off the shingles in favor of a sheet metal roof. I am thinking of going with dark green color for the house with a white roof, soffit, facia, and trim.

Sparkdm,

I would love to be able to go with spray foam insulation, but that is just not in the budget. I appreciate the idea though.

Reynolds, I just finished putting on pole barn siding on my 6x8.(Literally 5 minutes ago) I only screwed it at the top and bottom and around the windows and door. I expected it to still be kinda shaky but it is very firm! At this point I wouldn't have to spray foam it if I didn't want to spend the money. So if you go ahead and use 1x's for extra nailing surface your house will probably be plenty rigid. I would go with a dark color roof so that snow will melt off better. The siding I got was free used stuff and is a faded, dirty white so I'll be painting it. If you are going to use some sort of plywood or paneling on the inside that will firm it up as well. You probably already know this thought I would mention it.

Reynolds,
I just realized that you posted a pic of your shack on another thread. That is a big shack! No wonder why spray foam isn't in the budget. I used my Lakeville math to figure out that I would save almost $300 by using pink foam instead of spray foam on my 6x8. Gulp!