Plywood Buying Guide: Choose the Good Quality Plywood
We all are aware that construction of your dream house requires a variety of building materials such as bricks, sand, cement, wood, plywood, laminates, steel, and colours, etc. For buying and selecting right materials, you need to put lot of effort by spending a lot of time. It involves various stages like searching and selection of the right product, searching of right supplier, checking of quality and specification, delivery of materials, checking of bills, etc. How about if someone provides you the ‘buying guide’ for each material listed above? Here in this article we have tried to provide you ‘buying guide for a Plywood’. We have also written the article on “Material Buying Guide in General” read this for more clarity on how to buy any building material.
Buying Plywood
When the stage comes up of making a furniture for your house and need to take a decision of material to make a furniture, you may be aware & confuse at the same time by having heard about lot of wooden products like plywood, particleboard, blockboard, MDF, etc. Among them, plywood is the most common building materials used in almost every furniture like sofa, cupboard/wardrobe/closet, drawers, kitchen cabinets, etc. So here we have tried to provide plywood buying guide which will be helpful to you when you have taken decision of buying plywood from the market.
Also Read: Plywood vs Blockboard: Make a Right Choice
Let’s begin with the basics of plywood. It is a wooden panel made by stacking of several thin layers of wood veneers. In the market, it is popularly known as “Ply”. It is used in everything from furniture to construction of the house. Plywood is available as a form of sheet. Buying plywood involves different stages like selecting the right types of plywood, perfect size of plywood, finding the right supplier, verifying quality, checking bills, etc.
(A) Personnel
01. Need or Desire?
Buying plywood may be your need, but the purpose for which you are buying may be your desire e.g. plywood for wardrobe, bed, dining table or luxurious show case. Therefore, make sure that you need that particular item or is it your mere desire.https://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/ads?client=ca-pub-4721964365900906&output=html&h=280&slotname=1103702720&adk=2148858247&adf=240451217&w=859&fwrn=4&fwrnh=100&lmt=1601988985&rafmt=1&psa=0&guci=2.2.0.0.2.2.0.0&format=859×280&url=https%3A%2F%2Fgharpedia.com%2Fblog%2Fplywood-buying-guide%2F&flash=0&fwr=0&fwrattr=true&rpe=1&resp_fmts=3&wgl=1&tt_state=W3siaXNzdWVyT3JpZ2luIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9hZHNlcnZpY2UuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbSIsInN0YXRlIjowfV0.&dt=1601988987031&bpp=8&bdt=3124&idt=306&shv=r20201001&cbv=r20190131&ptt=9&saldr=aa&abxe=1&cookie=ID%3Dfea1308a0dd4ed0a%3AT%3D1601988988%3AS%3DALNI_MbS8ZPnGdHM-wRZdtJq0V4rsGPVHw&prev_fmts=1200×280%2C889x280&correlator=1519657666655&frm=20&pv=1&ga_vid=63718214.1601988985&ga_sid=1601988987&ga_hid=1313187916&ga_fc=0&iag=0&icsg=602457254833151&dssz=49&mdo=0&mso=0&u_tz=330&u_his=1&u_java=0&u_h=768&u_w=1366&u_ah=728&u_aw=1366&u_cd=24&u_nplug=3&u_nmime=4&adx=415&ady=2307&biw=1349&bih=625&scr_x=0&scr_y=0&oid=3&pvsid=170092122848917&pem=661&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&rx=0&eae=0&fc=640&brdim=0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C1366%2C0%2C1366%2C728%2C1366%2C625&vis=1&rsz=%7C%7CoeEbr%7C&abl=CS&pfx=0&fu=8320&bc=31&ifi=4&uci=a!4&btvi=2&fsb=1&xpc=Qeb7xbmAC0&p=https%3A//gharpedia.com&dtd=318
02. Why you Need Plywood?
Plywood is most commonly used in furniture, wall partitions, kitchen cabinets, doors, stairs, flooring, etc. So, before buying plywood, you need to make sure where you want to use it i.e. outside or inside and in dry, humid or moist environment. The structural strength of most of the furniture or other wooden elements is defined from plywood only. Therefore, the size and thickness of the plywood is most important factor. For instance, scenario -1: if plywood is used over wooden frames, lesser thickness of plywood would be a better option. Scenario-2 if plywood is used without wooden frames then it would be a better decision to use more thicker ply. Ultimately for both the scenario, plywood quality and specification will get changed. So always consult your interior designer or architect, they will help you in such decisions.
03. Plywood Quality and Specification
Before you are going to buy plywood, you need to ascertain
Plywood Grade:
First, you need to identify in which area you want to use plywood, for example;
- If you want to buy plywood for bathroom or kitchen, then you may use Boiling Water Resistant (BWR) grade plywood.
- In living room or bedroom, you can use Moisture Resistant (MR) grade plywood.
Some other types of plywood like Fire Retardant Plywood, Flexible Plywood, Industrial Plywood, etc. are also available in the market. These all different grades of plywood are used for various types of application.
Plywood Size:
The most common plywood size is 2449 x 1219 mm (8’x4’). Other size of plywood is also available in the market. The thicknesses of plywood may vary depending upon the type of plywood and its manufacturer. The thickness of plywood is between 3mm to 25mm. In the market, 18mm and 12mm thickness of plywood are most commonly used for furniture making.
Also Read: Properties of Plywood as a Building Material
04. Study of Plywood Specification
When you are buying plywood sheets, you have to study its specification, which may be described on the manufacturer’s website or on the plywood sheets.
The following details are generally written on the plywood sheet:
- ISI Mark
- Plywood Grade
- CM/L Number
- Batch No.
- Type of Plywood
- of Piles
- Thickness of Plywood
- Year of Manufacture