Radiata Pine Plywood

[Mo Ghotbi]

Hello, everyone. I am new to this forum so please forgive any lapses in decorum. I am about to start a built-in project for my home office and will need to make some paint-grade bookshelves about 30 inches wide and 5 feet tall. I went to HomeDepot looking for 3/4 birch plywood and they were completely out. They did have a huge stack of "radiata pine plywood" which looked pretty good and had 9 cores which appeared void-free. It was significantly less expensive than the PureBond Birch and appears to have a thicker face veneer as well. I was wondering if anyone had experience with this product for paint-grade cabinet projects. Thanks in advance for any advice and opinions.

[Dave Cav]

I've used a few sheets of the Chinese pine plywood; it's ok. It stayed flat and didn't have a lot of voids. The face veneers are VERY thin however, and won't take any sanding to speak of. It's ok for utility work. I made a quick set of bookcases with it and it turned out ok. Last year they (Home Depot) had some pine plywood from Chile which was quite a bit better; I wish I had picked up half a dozen or so sheets.

[Mo Ghotbi]

Thanks, Dave. I'll keep an eye out for the Chilean ply. Meanwhile looks like I will be trying to hunt down some birch ply at my local lumberyard.

[Tom M King]

I bought some of the Radiata Pine from Home Depot to build a cabinet for a sharpening sink. They didn't even have anything called Birch plywood. There wasn't a trip planned anywhere that had any good quality plywood, so I thought that would do. It looked pretty good, but other things came up, and that project sat in the back of the shop for a couple of months. It grew a light gray mold all over it, with no other signs of mold anywhere in the building. We carried it outside, and burned it.

[John K Jordan]

I bought some of the Radiata Pine from Home Depot to build a cabinet for a sharpening sink. They didn't even have anything called Birch plywood. There wasn't a trip planned anywhere that had any good quality plywood, so I thought that would do. It looked pretty good, but other things came up, and that project sat in the back of the shop for a couple of months. It grew a light gray mold all over it, with no other signs of mold anywhere in the building. We carried it outside, and burned it.

I used 1/2" radiata pine to panel the walls of my shop. What I got was great - no warping, delaminations, square, no knots, surfaces smooth. No sign of mold after 5 years. Bought a few sheets of 3/4" too, also good. I bought this from a good lumber yard, if that made any difference.

JKJ

[Bill Dufour]

Last time I looked at HD for plywood there was none with proper labels. The labels said size and number of plys but no information about species. I was tring to buy radiata but nothing is labeled so I ended up with Fir or maybe "white wood". From Georgia Pacific

[Tom M King]

There is nowhere closer than an hour and a half from me that sells good plywood any more. I used to be able to buy good stuff at family owned building suppliers, but Lowes, and Home Depot put them out of business, and their plywood, and lumber quality has done nothing but continue to go down.

[John K Jordan]

There is nowhere closer than an hour and a half from me that sells good plywood any more. I used to be able to buy good stuff at family owned building suppliers, but Lowes, and Home Depot put them out of business, and their plywood, and lumber quality has done nothing but continue to go down.

That's a shame. Within an hour I can find top quality baltic birch ply, a variety of hardwood ply, and some pretty good standard plywood. But not at the big box stores.

JKJ

[Ken Krawford]

I don't know what your lumber yard carries but I buy 60" x 60" Baltic birch ply at mine. According to your project dimensions, a sheet that size would give you zero waste.

[Peter Kelly]

Hello, everyone. I am new to this forum so please forgive any lapses in decorum. I am about to start a built-in project for my home office and will need to make some paint-grade bookshelves about 30 inches wide and 5 feet tall. I went to HomeDepot looking for 3/4 birch plywood and they were completely out. They did have a huge stack of "radiata pine plywood" which looked pretty good and had 9 cores which appeared void-free. It was significantly less expensive than the PureBond Birch and appears to have a thicker face veneer as well. I was wondering if anyone had experience with this product for paint-grade cabinet projects. Thanks in advance for any advice and opinions.Look for Arauco (https://www.arauco.cl/na/) brand radiata plywood. Some, not all HD locations stock it.

[Rich Engelhardt]

https://www.peri.com/en/products/panels/radiata-pine.html

It's decent quality stuff & defiantly not Chinese.

[Robert Engel]

It will paint fine. I suggest 2 coats of primer.

The issue you will have are the knots on the B side.

If your store carries it, I would use the Sandeply instead.

That said, your best best for cab ply to paint is a commercial supplier.

[Gregory King]

Last year I built some adjustable [Standards and clips} shelving in our basement. Used the 3/4" standard spruce ply. So the plan after New Year is to do another area along the same lines . Local supplier will bring in another lift of the Chinese birch in about 2 weeks at $50. / sheet. Cheaper than the spruce used before. Again the veneer is super thin, almost transparent. You can see the black in it. Just use a coat of Oil base primer and two coats of finish. Really like the multiple layers, similar to the Baltic weight wise. A little heavier, but seems very stable. I used a couple sheets earlier this past summer for another project. Would never use for stain and varnish finish though.

[Jim Dwight]

I built a cabinet for my bathroom with the pine plywood from Chile HD sells and am very happy with it. I used Resisthane and a compatible spray stain blocking primer Hood finishing sells and it went well. I have also used several sheets in the shop and been satisfied. I did notice the price is up $5 a sheet and the back veneer has a lot more knots but I still think it's a good buy.

[Larry Frank]

I built all my shop cabinets with Aruaco plywood and it was fantastic material. The surface plys were thick and good and very few voids. I bought them at Menards which stores them flat unlike the stupid arms that cause warpage.