Fireproofing OSB walls and floors

Littlebriar

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I have a room that has OSB on walls and ceiling and floor. The room is 16' x 14'. I plan to convert this room into my metal fab area. I will be welding in this area and am concerned about burning the place down with smoldering embers. I had a friend lose his garage to a stray spark. I'm looking for some ideas on fireproofing this area. I'm thinking of metal barn siding for the walls and ceiling and maybe hardy or cement board for the floors. I'm concerned that the cement board will be hard to sweep and that the metal barn siding will make it difficult to hang stuff on the walls. I'm also considering just hanging welding curtain in one of the corners and using the backer board just in a quarter of the shop.
Other ideas would be appreciated.
 
Standard drywall (sheetrock) will be fine for the walls and ceiling. I wouldn't put down bare Hardy or any cement board, unless they are covered with ceramic tile, they won't hold up. Commercial vinyl tile may be a good choice but you should install hard board (masonite) glued down, first as they won't hold up well if installed directly on OSB.
A shop I worked at years ago had a wood plank floor, they had installed a couple of sheets of galvanized sheet metal under the welding bench.
 
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X2 on the drywall for the walls and ceiling. As for the floor need more info about the building and exactly what you plan to fabricate. My first thought was lightweight concrete like what is used on the second floor in some homes. It is still pretty heavy so there might be some structural issues to deal with. Concrete pavers are another option. Ceramic tile will probably crack and break if heavy objects are dropped on it. Expensive too. I think that a metal floor would be slippery.
 
This is where welding curtains/screens and fire blankets can help contain sparks and ballies during hot work. They're cheap and durable. I understand your concern, once OSB starts burning it's bad news.
 
A solution of boric acid in water painted on to OSB will help to prevent smouldering type of fires caused by welding. It is also
really good used on the cloth covering on boilers to prevent fires. As an added bonus, boric acid is quite deadly to ants and
termites and other similar critters. The metal coverings in the above posts is obviously a better fire preventative but boric acid
applied to exposed wood can make it a lot less combustible.
 
This suggestion may be a bit unorthodox but Hardiebacker tile underlayment "cement board" is relatively inexpensive and easy to work with and is very durable, fireproof and it can be primed and painted which also helps with keeping things clean and tidy and it may even help contain workshop noise to the workshop! It comes in 3 different thicknesses I believe but id use the 1/4" thick sheets for an application such as this.
 
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I’d go for Sheetrock for the walls. If it’s sturdy enough, the concrete pavers seem like a good low cost and fast way to get the area ready to work in.
 
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