UK Ply Question

[BassheadUK]

Hiya !

I have contacted a local company that I thought were trade and would have some good prices, I asked them the question about ply and received this response

Thanks for the enquiry, we are pleased to be able to offer the following options:

12mm Latvian Birch Plywood 1220x2440mm BB EN636-2 FSC - £38.92ea

12mm Wisa Finnish Softwood PEFC 2440x1220mm EN636-2 Ext - £25.04ea

12mm Chinese Softwood Pine CDX 2440x1220mm EN636-2 Ext - £17.50ea

12mmx2440x1220mm Chinese Hardwood Throughout / Far Eastern EN636-2 Ext - £22.28ea

They will also offer delivery which was £20ea.... Im not sure if that was each delivery required or each sheet.... No way i'd be paying £38.92 + vat for a sheet and adding £20 delivery to it too..... I can rent a van for £25 a day, and drive a van everyday for a living (racked out and tracked so cant use that) ***Above prices do not include VAT @ 20% ***

Another timber merchant has the following on the website

Birch plywood throughout with B/BB faces. Even though bonded with WBP glue it is not intended for exterior use or areas of high humidity
£41.95 (based on 8x4 sheet)

Are these prices sounding about right....? seems a little dear to me...!

[Chris_Allen]

I buy Birch for £35 including VAT and softwood pine for £13 inc VAT - that sounds expensive to me but it all depends on volume that the supplier is getting wood from. Is that part of a builders merchant or an independent supplier?

[Charles Jenkinson]

If you're not confident that you aren't paying over the odds, then keep looking. Try phoning some furniture manufacturers for their sources - they use BB quite a lot. I eventually found a healthy and sensibly priced supply (also of 3mm BB which is a bit rarer) at a company called manchester panel products - they were not an obvious plywood dealer/stockist, i.e. their website is 'cubiclesanddoors', etc., etc.

A racked and tracked works van is not very charitable.

Charles

[BassheadUK]

Thanks guys !

Managed to find another and they've said

All our Birch is stocked in 8' x 4' (2440 x 1220mm) sheets and it is all Baltic Birch, our normal grades being BB/BB.

Price for 12mm Birch per sheet is £30.95 plus VAT. Anything over £200 plus VAT would be free delivery - under £200 would incur a £20 plus VAT charge

I am off to see my branch manager of Jewson tomorrow as he has various types of ply. They are also very well priced having used them a lot in my house renovations and delivery is £10 inc vat!

[sine143]

thats pretty decent. however the 4x8 makes me wary of the quality.

where I'm at in the state, its about 30usd for a 5x5 sheet of true baltic birch (bb/bb). however, we can also source 4x8 "domestic birch" (aka North american hardwood birch) for about 47 dollars a sheet (about the same as your 4x8s there). If it is indeed british domestic birch... then you should be fine, but make sure its not cheap chinese knockoff bircher

[Chris_Allen]

I have never seen a 5x5 sheet of ply in the UK. Something 5ft wide would not fit in the majority of vehicles.

If the 4x8 Birch that I've been using is low quality, I'd be scratching my head on how to make it better.

[AntonZ]

I have never seen a 5x5 sheet of ply in the UK. Something 5ft wide would not fit in the majority of vehicles.

Neither would it fit the majority of your roads

[Chris_Allen]

Neither would it fit the majority of your roads

That looks more like a motorway to me.

[Charles Jenkinson]

My 3mm sheet was 5'x5'. That stock sheet size probably applies to thinner sizes, across the board (ahem) generally.

Huddersfield used to have the highest proportion of Land Rovers per head, in the UK at any rate.

[Chris_Allen]

My 3mm sheet was 5'x5'. That stock sheet size probably applies to thinner sizes, across the board (ahem) generally.

My statement does sound like I've trawled across the length and breadth of the country looking for ply, which of course, isn't the case!

I have never seen a 5x5 sheet of ply in Huddersfield (and some other places too).

[escapemcp]

I have never seen a 5x5 sheet of ply in the UK. Something 5ft wide would not fit in the majority of vehicles.

If the 4x8 Birch that I've been using is low quality, I'd be scratching my head on how to make it better.

Meyer timber - where I got my wood from - sell 5x5 sheets. Admittedly the didn't have any in stock when I tried to get some but they do get it. They are Uk wide (sort of).. branches at:

Chippenham
Grangemouth
Leeds
Medway
Norwich
Southampton
Stoke-on-Trent
Tilbury
Newcastle (sales - so I assume no wood there )
Liskeard (sales - ditto)

From http://www.meyertimber.com/default.aspx?pid=518. The Chippenham yard even let me pick up the wood at 7pm at night and provided leckky to chop it down with my Jigsaw! Great service that I feel I should mention as it could help other people here. I hope this isn't going against any rules. FYI the 12mm Baltic Birch I got was 9 plies and great quality.

[Tom Smit]

FYI the 12mm Baltic Birch I got was 9 plies and great quality.

[escapemcp]

FYI the 12mm Baltic Birch I got was 9 plies and great quality.

Ahem... that's the stuff I used for my 2nd sub... the first was built out of thin veneer chinese crap!!

[Harley]

Huddersfield used to have the highest proportion of Land Rovers per head, in the UK at any rate.

BL had to get rid of their junk somewhere I guess.

[sine143]

I have never seen a 5x5 sheet of ply in the UK. Something 5ft wide would not fit in the majority of vehicles.

If the 4x8 Birch that I've been using is low quality, I'd be scratching my head on how to make it better.

good thing we've all got one of these


I wasnt saying it *was* poor quality, just that it may be. the chinese companies dont make 5x5, but they DO make 4x8. AFAIK 5x5 is "baltic birch" 4x8 is "eurobirch" or chinese birch (in the UK at least) 5x10 is finnishbirch