Arauco No Longer Available At Lowes

[LiefStevens]

So I went by Lowes today to pick up a few sheets of 1/2 Arauco and they didn't have any. When I asked about it they told me the
Arauco plant burnt down and Lowes is no longer carrying it. I called 2 other Lowes and they gave me the same story. Luckly I found a local lumber yard that had some. Found this on the Arauco website http://www.araucoply.com/informacion.as ... 2&parent=0

Looks like Arauco might be hard to get for a while.

[Gregory East]

Arauco don't make Pinus Radiata, aka California Pine, trees in their factory. There must be plenty of non branded radiata pine plywood out there.

[LiefStevens]

True but most of the 1/2 pine ply I see is 3 ply.

[thekl0wn]

If there are Menard's around, check there as well. Might have some leftover stock.

[jswingchun]

From the website:

"The new state-of-the-art mill will have, among others, two state-of-the-art veneer peeling lines, three drying lines equipped with latest machine vision and moisture meter technology, four automatic plywood gluing and lay-up lines, three plywood presses, an automatic veneer patching line together with three automatic veneer puttying lines and the mill's production management system."

With all new equipment I wonder if it will change layering format of the plywood when they do get it up and running.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

True but most of the 1/2 pine ply I see is 3 ply.

You're shopping in the wrong places. Real lumberyards that cater to the building trades carry good plywood.

[doncolga]

I randomly chose a local cabinet maker from the phone book and got a source for 7 ply 5x5 BB.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

I randomly chose a local cabinet maker from the phone book and got a source for 7 ply 5x5 BB.

Many cabinet makers buy their plywood by the pallet at wholesale, and if you make nice they'll sell you some. They'd buy in smaller quantity if they could, but don't due to the price, so they'll often be glad to get rid of some.

[LiefStevens]

I have a bunch of places I can buy nice plywood from but I haven't found anything that is quite as light as the Arauco stuff. I prefer to use BB as is a lot nicer to work with but when someone's prime concern is weight I have been using the Arauco ply. Plus I think for a lot of the non wood workers on here it was convenient to be able to find something usable at Lowes.

[Gregory East]

If I was Lowes I'd be looking for an alternative source for the next few months. 1 factory burning down isn't the end of pine plywood in the USA.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

If I was Lowes I'd be looking for an alternative source for the next few months. 1 factory burning down isn't the end of pine plywood in the USA.

Arauco mainly comes from Chile, and this one factory provided 70% of their output. But it's only a temporary setback.

[djtecthreat]

I'm going to resurrect this. I had no idea this was going on until last night when I went to get some sheets for some new builds I want to start. I was told they're completely out of stock and replacing it with a TopChoice product (which means it will be shit). The guy at the Lumber counter was very helpful, called all the nearby stores, everybody was out except for a store about 1.5hours away, but they had 2 sheets left so I passed on it.

He called someone higher up in the food chain and they said that as soon as the last of the stock is bled out, they will remove the item #'s from the system and order new product, so I have to wonder if Lowes will even continue to carry this after the plant is rebuilt and production resumes.

My local lumber yard has a lift of 1/2" but he's raised the prices significantly to slow sales down.

Any other alternatives and locations to get them? I could go BB, which is where I always want to turn to, but availability, price, and weight keep me running back to Arauco.