Bummer @ Menards

[Brian Tillinghast]

I was at my local Menards last week picking up some plumbing stuff for the powder room redo. I went by the lumber to see if 1/2" "baltic birch" was on sale. I couldn't find it , so I ask at the BM counter and was told SPECIAL ORDER only.:( For those of you without a Menards around you, I really liked their bb. Yeah, I know it's not the real stuff, but it was great for shop cabs, jigs, etc. Never had a problem with it. Oh well, I guess I'll need to plan ahead.

[Scott Pearson]

Yeah, its not the best stuff but still better then what I have seen at Home Depot. The stuff at HD looks more like pringals then plywood.

Scott

[Kyle Brooks]

I have not noticed at my Menards, but also have not looked. Have you used any of the launa plywood for anything and if you have wondering what you think of it. I bought a sheet of it to use for things around the shop. I don't think it stacks up to the Birch but the 3/4" sheet is 7 plys think. I glued two pieces together to make both my front and back fence on my cross cut sled and am happy with it. Again I was just wondering if you have used it.

[Peter J Lee]

Its listed online as "in stock" at the store I usually go to. I've noticed there's quite a variation in things like hardwood lumber and electrical supplies between stores. Maybe its just the store you shop at.

[Brian Tillinghast]

Peter, I called a couple of local Menards and got the same story- special order. I just checked online and the 4 nearest , including called ones, 1/2 &3/4" special , 1/4" in store.Yeah Scott I NEVER would buy wood from HD , probably better off looking in the dumpster out back. The BB from Menards was decent quality - 7ply for the 1/2 ,11 ply on the 3/4". The plies were all equal thickness with no voids and a thick veneer. I just like to be able to get it when I need it, spoiled I guess. The 4x8 sheets also seem to work out better than the 5x5.

[Phil Thien]

Same here, visited my store a week or two ago and saw they were no longer stocking it.

I never used it, though.

[Tom Matthews]

I have not noticed at my Menards, but also have not looked. Have you used any of the launa plywood for anything and if you have wondering what you think of it. I bought a sheet of it to use for things around the shop. I don't think it stacks up to the Birch but the 3/4" sheet is 7 plys think. I glued two pieces together to make both my front and back fence on my cross cut sled and am happy with it. Again I was just wondering if you have used it.I've used it, I typically keep a couple sheets on hand for when I need plywood for building something. It's not super durable, but you could do a whole lot worse I think.

Really the durability statement stems from when I chipped off part of the veneer on the corner while manhanding a sheet around the garage. I drug a corner on the concrete and a chip about 2x3 inches popped off.

[Chuck Fischer]

I actually just picked up some from my Menards and the quality isn't what it use to be. Tons of voids and it delaminated while I was working with it. It was on sale at my menards too. Won't be buying it from there again.

[Jeff Monson]

I actually just picked up some from my Menards and the quality isn't what it use to be. Tons of voids and it delaminated while I was working with it. It was on sale at my menards too. Won't be buying it from there again.

Ditto on that, the last 1/2" bb ply I used from Menards was terrible. I picked up 2 sheets of 3/4" mdf last week and even that is warped now too!!! The mdf they have now is a lighter color brown and NOT straight like the dark brown sheets they used to carry.

[Stew Hagerty]

I haven't tried Menards' BB Ply. But, I have used their Arauco AC SandPly quite often. I compared the two while at the store one day and thought, for literally half the price, the SandPly's appearance was not that far off from the BB that it justified the substanially higher cash outlay. Not for building shop cabinets anyway.

[Matt Meiser]

I used some of that Arauco stuff a while back and really liked it.

[Peter J Lee]

I didn't realize that Menards had spread so far and wide.

[ian maybury]

I bought 1/2 in birch ply from a local and supposedly reputable irish supplier recently - having been assured by them that it was top grade and of Baltic origin. They showed me a sample that was fine. The deal was that they would pick out some flat sheets for me. When it arrived it was badly warped, had repairs and filled defects, voids, dark streaks and the outer plys were in something that was mushy, had weak bonding more like cheap WBP, was quite rough on the top surfaces and didn't at all feel like the birch i was used to.

When i went digging i found buried the fine print that despite all the assurances it was in fact BB grade which is almost as cr***y as it gets. They really weren't interested in my complaint - they were just about prepared to change it if i shouted loudly enough, but realistically didn't care.

What i guess i'm saying is that (over here at least anyway) these suppliers are under considerable pressure in the face of competition and falling sales, and in an effort to get an edge are increasingly pulling moves like this. It was well priced, but not of much use for what i wanted it for.

Don't know what it's like in the US, but chances are it's not going to be all that different. Meaning that quite apart from availability it's probably getting so that it's important to know exactly what grade you are looking for, and if possible to inspect in advance too....

ian

[Curt Harms]

I have not noticed at my Menards, but also have not looked. Have you used any of the launa plywood for anything and if you have wondering what you think of it. I bought a sheet of it to use for things around the shop. I don't think it stacks up to the Birch but the 3/4" sheet is 7 plys think. I glued two pieces together to make both my front and back fence on my cross cut sled and am happy with it. Again I was just wondering if you have used it.

We used quite a bit of 3/4" lauan ply 10+ years ago so I don't know about current stock but it was pretty nice. It stayed straight and very few voids. The top ply was prone to splintering when crosscut so scoring was required. I did just buy a couple sheets of "1/4" lauan ply at Lowes. It did the 'potato chip' thing but it didn't matter for the application I bought it for. The thickness progression of "1/4" is funny if you have a 'different' sense of humor. 1/4" > 5.5 mm > 5.0 mm (3/16").

[Mark Burnette]

A couple weeks ago my brother in law dropped by with a load of birch ply to cut up on my saw. He bought from Menards but this stuff certainly wasn't Baltic Birch. Flaked easy but chip-out on the cutline wasn't bad. The sheet construction was of the "pressed to size" variety with lots of ply overlaps visible on the edges. Looked OK in the raw but I wonder how the process of smashing the stack to spec thickness will affect the evenness of stain.