Home Depot plywood versus....

[Brian Hale]

Is there a difference between the plywood (birch, oak) i get from Home depot/Lowes and places like Wall lumber?

The HD stuff is less expensive than Wall's but what about quality? What about veneer thickness? Can i still get lumber core plywood? I haven't found an online place for that yet...

Thanks!
Brian

[Jim Cunningham]

Good afternoon.

My experience has been that the quality of plywood from Home Depot has generally been awful. The stuff at Lowes has been a little better. My local hardwood suppliers have been less expensive than the big box stores, and the quality has been dramatically better. By the way I am in South Florida. I don't know what it is like elsewhere.

jim

[Steven Wilson]

You get what you pay for. HomeDepot, at least in my neck of the woods, doesn't carry A1 grade plywood, it's more like B3 or B2 which is less expensive. For similar grade stuff, my hardwood supplier costs about the same as HD. Of course the nice plywood costs $80-$100/sheet.

[Cecil Arnold]

Steve is right. As to lumber core, I think it would be special order at a hardwood yard here in Houston. If you had an account and bought enough you might be able to get it at Dixie Ply which is a major US supplier.

[Jim Becker]

The quality of the birch and oak plywood at the 'borg is variable, both regionally and even sometimes by store. I've had "good luck" with the birch from my local stores, but even then, I've had to be careful in sheet selection. There are usually some differences between the big-box hardwood plywoods and what you would buy from a plywood supplier, including the thickness and quality of the veneers, core material and availability of specific grain/cuts for the veneer. If your project "doesn't care" much about that...go with the lower cost material. If you have critical needs, invest in the higher quality material. Every project is different so there is no harm in choosing material accordingly.

[Brian Hale]

Thanks guys for confirming my suspicions.....

This is for my first paid commision in over a decade (gloat?) so i'll want the good stuff. Since Wall Lumber has the birch ply, baltic birch and hardwood i'll place the order thru them.

BTW, the project is for 2 DVD/CD storage cabinets with a glass door cabinet over each. This fella has one heck of a collection! The drawer units will have 7 drawers each and each drawer can hold either 336 cd's, 152 dvd's or a combination of 76 DVD's + 168 CD's. This changes by simply moving dividers.

Drawers will be 1/2" Baltic birch with 1/8" dividers and solid birch fronts. Birch ply for the tops and sides with hardwood edging.

I'm quite excited.... :D

Brian

[Terry Hatfield]

Agree comletely with Jim on this one.........

I routinely buy plywood from a hardwood/plywood supplier for furniture projects. It's much more expensive but worth it for certain applications. I bought 4 sheets of the maple/birch ply at HD today for a computer workstation I'm starting for my home office. It's more a utilitarian piece. I want it to look good of course, but for $35 a sheet it's hard to beat the HD plywood for that type of project.

Bottom line here is let the project dictate whether you buy the nice stuff or not. For my computer workstation project the HD plywood will work out just fine. If I were building an entertainment center for my living room I would opt for the better stuff.

Terry

[Don Selke]

I like to deal with one supplier when ever possible. In my case, I am lucky to have a major hardwood/sheet good supplier one mile from my house. When they first opened, I was just another face. After several trips, they started to notice me (who can forget a face like mine) and we started to chat. Now when I go into the supplier, I get my material at the same price or lowert then the big box store. The guys and gals even tell me when they have a over supply of a species of hardwood that I can purchase at a reasonable price. If you have a good lumber supplier in your area, stop in and introduce yourself, you may get lucky as I did here in the South West.
One supplier here in Phoenix changed there policy and will not sell to you if the order is below $250.00. When the building boom dries up some day, they will have lost all the casual woodworkers and all the little guys.

Hey Terry, remember the e-mail I sent you some time ago, I told you that I was as ugly as You!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now my picture is below yours.

[Howard Acheson]

Basicly, the home centers sell BC face graded hardwood plywood. It is stamped right on the panel or at least, indicated on the edge printing.

The grading system deals primarily with appearence. An "A" graded face veneer will look better than a "B" graded veneer. Back side veneers are generally of a lesser grade.

Most lumberyards or hardwood suppliers carry AB or AC graded plywood which is of better appearence than the BC carried by home centers. That does not mean it is of lesser quality, it just doesn't look as good but they tell you that up front. On special order, a lumberyard or specialty wood dealer you can get AA graded plywood and even specify the type of flitch match you want. The shop I was involved with ordered mostly book matched walnut and mahogany. This was very expensive stuff but there was no better looking plywood around.

Home centers primarily cater to the remodeling contractor or amatuer weekend remodeler. This means that most of what the sell gets painted. BC plywood is perfect for painting but may be lacking for clear finishing. Home centers carry what their primary customer base wants. Unforturnately amatuer woodworkers are not a big enough market to cater to.

My point is that you don't go to a Toyota dealer when you are expecting to buy a Lexus.

[Dennis Peacock]

All correct and excellent advise here....but you may also want to take note of the thickness of the veneer.....most of the stuff I find is like 1/100th of an inch and can EASILY be sanded through.

[Paul Downes]

In some markets the big box stores will buy the second grade stuff because the mill might have run a bunch that ran 1/32 to1/64 undersize. I have also heard that some of the smaller suppliers have a hard time even getting product because the big boxes are buying everything the mill produces.

[Terry Hatfield]

"Hey Terry, remember the e-mail I sent you some time ago, I told you that I was as ugly as You!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now my picture is below yours."

Don,

LOL...I do remember that!!! Thank goodness both of our pictures are really little. :D

t

[Rob Russell]

For the sunroom in our addition, we used oak plywood on the walls instead of sheetrock. We looked at HD, but the quality of the plywood just wasn't as good as what's available from the commercial suppliers. Part of the difference is the availability of rotary vs. slice cut veneer.

On rotary cut veneer, the log is spun (like on a lathe) and a long sheet of veneer is peeled off.
On sliced veneer, slices of veneer are cut off just as if you were resawing a board into many thin boards on a bandsaw (although they are cut, not sawn).

Sliced veneer is generally of higher quality.

Here's a picture of how we used it - you can see the plywood behind the oak window casings and mouldings.

Rob