Talked to an old timer at a lumberyard and he changed how I think about plywood

I was picking up some birch ply for a built-in last week and this guy in his 70s loading the same stuff stops me. He said stop buying the big box store stuff and go to a specialty supplier instead. I always figured plywood is plywood right? But he showed me the difference in the core layers on some offcuts he had. He said the voids and glue gaps cost him a job once. Has anyone else noticed that much difference between suppliers?

3 comments

3 Comments

grace5088d ago

Is one bad sheet really that big of a deal though... I buy from wherever's cheapest and it's always been fine for what I do. @jamie_white said pretty much the same thing, a void here and there is just bad luck.

dylanmurray12d ago

Man, that old timer was right. I had a cabinet door blow apart on me once from a void right in the middle of a sheet from a big box store. Did you ask him which specialty supplier he swears by, or did he just say "go find one"?

jamie_white11d ago

You sure it wasn't just bad luck or maybe how you cut it? I've built plenty of cabinets and furniture with big box plywood and never had a void blow apart on me. You pay attention to the face grade, pick through the stack yourself, and avoid the real cheap stuff, it's fine for most jobs. Specialty suppliers are great if you're doing high end work or need something specific like Baltic birch, but for a standard cabinet box I don't see the point in spending double. Most of what they sell is just the same mill going to different distributors anyway.