Found out I've been wasting money on plywood for years

I was at a supplier in Portland last week and the guy behind the counter talked me into looking at the actual grade stamps on my birch plywood. Turns out the stuff I always grab is grade B with a bunch of patch filler, and I've been paying $75 a sheet for it. He showed me a grade A sheet from the same brand for $62 and it had fewer voids and a smoother face. I double checked online when I got home and the difference is real, but nobody in the shops around here tells you this. Anyone else notice that the expensive sheets at the big box stores are actually lower quality than stuff from a real lumberyard?

2 comments

2 Comments

laura_chen4114d ago

Read a woodworking blog last year that broke down the grade stamps and it blew my mind. Those big box stores hide the cheap stuff behind pretty packaging. They slap a premium price on plywood that's full of filler and knots on the inner plies. Real lumberyards usually have better prices because they don't mark up the same way. I only buy from my local yard now, way less hassle and better quality.

murphy.tessa14d ago

Read something similar in Fine Woodworking a few months back about how the big box stores actually buy a different grade of plywood than what's available at real lumberyards. They're basically selling you B grade with C grade inner plies and slapping a pretty face on it. The article said the mills make a separate production run just for those stores. It's wild how they charge a premium for stuff that's structurally worse. The grade stamp thing is the real key, I always check that now before I buy anything.

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