Plywood Grades & Applications

Plywood is an engineered wood panel. It is produced by peeling thin layers of wood called veneers from a log, drying the veneer and then gluing the veneers at alternate angles to each other. As wood is weak in one direction but strong in the other, the resultant sheet is usually stronger than the original piece of timber. Plywood has many options, but these can be broadly grouped into the following: Structural Decorative Non Structural Structural plywood should be used when the sheet has a load being exerted upon it. An example of this could be flooring and formply. Decorative plywood is where the face of the sheet is used as a feature. Areas may include walls, ceilings, furniture and cupboard doors. Non Structural ply is where the plywood is not subject to load. Suitable applications may include lightweight shelving, pallets/crates, templates and wall lining where appearance is not crucial.

Application

The faces & backs of plywood are usually sorted into 4 main grades. A,B,C&D. A face is the highest grade with only very small defects allowable down to D grade which can allow open knots and splits. In essence as you go through the grades from A to D, more imperfections such as knots and splits are acceptable. In many cases a low grade such as D is rarely seen as it is usually the bottom of a floor sheet or is against the wall studs in a wall/ceiling application. The most common grade is C which is the face grade in CD Structural plywood. A & B faces are usually utilised for their appearance and are often seen in wall and ceiling applications.

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