Introduction:
Plywood is a material manufactured from a thin layer of wood veneer, later glued along with the wood grain. Plywood comes with various grades and different models. Here I will discuss the types of plywood and its uses. Because plywood comes with various sizes and shapes.
The plywood grade is measured with the thickness, the following are plywood grades available in the market 3-ply, 5-ply, 7- ply, 9-ply, and 13 ply. If you want plywood harder than this, you can choose softwood.
3-Ply Plywood:
This is three layer plywood. The combination of veneer and wood grain is combusted equally. Interiors in chennai use 3 ply plywood for minimal decorative purposes.
5-Ply Plywood:
5 layers of veneer and wood grain are used in this plywood. This is a little stronger and mostly used in exteriors.
Multilayer Plywood:
If the layers are 7, 9 and 13, then it is considered as a multilayer plywood. In most cases this kind of plywood is used in roofing, exterior design. This type of plywood is extremely strong like concrete.
Softwood:
Softwoods are also other types of plywood, where it is made from Pine, Redwood, cedar (pencil dedar).
- Cedar Softwood
- Redwood Softwood
- Pine Softwood.
These woods have some kind of strongness and Interior designers in chennai like to use this softwood for roof sheathing and sometimes for sub-flooring. We can use softwood plywood for garage, pet houses and for some basic home decor usages.
Hard plywoods:
If the plywoods are more than 5 layers, then it’s considered as a Hard Plywood. 5 layer to 13 layers plywoods are really strong, they can withstand tough conditions as well.
The following are materials used to create Hard Plywoods
- Birch Plywood
- Oak Plywood
- Maple Plywood
- Walnut Plywood
- Popular Plywood
Hardwoods are used to make almirah, table, and furniture and you can even use musical instruments like piano, keyboard etcHardwood can act as a strong frame.
Aircraft Plywood:
It is considered as one the costliest plywood ever built and it got the highest grade and its double durable than a normal plywood. Usually aircraft plywood is made from mahogany. This plywood can resist heat and moisture.
This type of plywood is very thin, light weight, flexible at the same time they are ultra strong.
Lumber Core:
They are three layer plies plywood. The outer layer has thin veneers and the inner layer is thick and made of hard material and glued to make it strong.
As a leading interior designers in chennai, we will not recommend lumber core for your projects.
Exterior Plywoods:
Exterior Plywoods always stand out the crowd. They are highly water resistant and withstand the hard weather. The veneer and wood grains are compressed harder. We have designed more than 50+ Exterior projects. All the materials which we used for those exterior projects are these weather resistant exterior plywoods.
Marine Plywoods:
The name would have given the clue, yes it’s a marine grade tough plywood. Basically these plywoods are waterproof and the major quality check for marine plywoods is Toughness. The layers are manufactured with care.
The marine plywoods are made of Larix occidentalis ie., Western Larch. This is the wood which is used to manufacture marine plywoods. Western Larch provides you high graded plywoods.
To make the perfect marine grade plywoods manufacturers should not put knotholes. Asper per APA Engineered Wood Association, they gave a ‘B’ Grade rating at the same time the wood are used for better construction
We use one of finest performing water resistant glue for plies. Marine grade plywoods are mostly used in furniture, exteriors, sheds, Garages and Pet houses.
Structural Plywoods:
People consider structural plywoods for looks and design. But they are very strong in nature and they aren’t water resistant and the grades are usually as ‘C or D’ Grade. Structural plywoods are inexpensive when you compare them with other plywoods.
Usually structural plywoods are used for creating some normal decorating work inside your home. Interior designers like us will not use this type of plywood for our clients.
Overlaid Plywoods:
These overlaid plywoods, can be said as
- High Density Overlaid
- Medium Density Overlaid
Overlaid plywoods are normal and regular sheets, the process is common with the same veneers and wood grains.
The Additional manufacturing features of overlaid plywoods are they are pressurized with high heat than a normal plywoods process.
High Density Overlaid Panels – High Level of Resin
Medium Density Overlaid Panels – Low Density of resin comparably with HDO
Here are the other types of Plywoods, you can use it for your interiors, DIY process or for some small decorative purposes.
- Composite, Flexible, MR Grade, Veneer Core, Commercial Plywoods and Decorative Plywoods.
We can see other types of Plywoods in our next blogs, you will learn more about foam board, composite plywood, fibre boards etc.,
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