Solid Core Plywood at Home Depot

[Michael Weber]

Anyone know anything about the quality of Home Depot's 3/4 inch solid core birch plywood? Local place has it on sale for 40 bucks. Its regularly 70 dollars. I've never seen solid core pw before and this looked a little suspicious to me. The core seemed to be built of small lengths of wood laid side by side and end to end. There were some small gaps (1/8 inch or so) along the long edge where two pieces of wood did not meet where they abutted end to end. Is that normal for solid core pw? It was stamped "made in Ecuador". Never saw it there before but I haven't been by for quite a while.

[Kirk Simmons]

I bought some lumber core red oak from HD a few weeks ago. It was decent stability-wise, but the quality of the good face was a lot lower than the one I bought at my local full-service lumberyard.

That being said, the HD one was about $50, and the super high quality ones were $140. I used the $140 ones for the doors and the $50 versions to make the carcasses.

Edit: My lumberyard version has a basswood core. I have no idea what HD uses.

[Shawn Christ]

I haven't seen it but it sounds like "lumber core" plywood. To my knowledge it was relatively popular until about 30 years or so ago. I've seen 1960s-era birch cabinet doors made out of the original stuff - edges looked decent when finished. But if there's gaps, that's a whole other story.

[Victor Robinson]

They started carrying it a few months back. I got a few sheets at that time but haven't used them yet.

[Michael Weber]

Thanks for the info. I was just curious about it, don't really have any firm plans that would utilize it and little room to store it. I have learned that any pw purchased at borgs was suspect and generally poor quality compared to the real stuff. Wondered if this was an exception but those gaps really bugged me.

[Tom Hammond]

The only building materials I buy from HD are framing lumber, drywall and OSB. Anything requiring an appreciable level of sizing accuracy or material straightness and flatness... I head on down to Amish country and pay the premium. The lack of quality control just isn't worth the discounted prices.

There's a very disturbing trend occurring at HD... a lack of coordination in product management... and on very simple things. I went to buy a couple drawer knobs there a while back, but needed longer machine screws for them. Went over to the hardware aisle... and they had nothing with the same size and thread. HD employee took it out of the package and tried matching to their measuring panel... and it wouldn't thread into any of the holes. I found out later that the knob was Chinese and the machine screw was made in Germany. It was of some unique combination of metric size and thread that the manufacturer had developed and the German screw company had made for them. I talked to HD corporate, explaining that the 'vast majority' of AMERICAN-MARKET products like this require a very common #8-32 screw, and all they wanted to talk about was how inexpensive their products were "on the whole." What it comes down to is their store lines are becoming more and more generic. I shop there less and less, and now only buy the most inoccuous products there. If I find a supplier for common framing materials, drywall and related materials, and small tools who can provide a close price, I'll probably never go in there again.

[Dave Lash]

Thr local Home Depot near me started carrying the solid core plywood in early 2009. A friend of mine needed some inexpensive kitchen cabinet doors as he was selling his house, so I made them out of two sheets of the "Sandeply by Endesa" from HD. The tag on the plywood shows it was made in Ecuador. The doors were flat panel with a routed edge, and V groves to simulate a five piece door. Some of the sheets of plywood had imperfections on the face, but I was able to find two good sheets. The face venner was thin so I was careful with the sanding. After staining and several coats of polyurthane the doors looked pretty good for an inexpensive job. A few pictures below show the tag from the plywood, a sample drawer front (that someone cut 1" too short), and some of the finished kitchen cabinets.

[Ron Cole]

I used some to make a bookcase, and there are lots of those gaps throughout the sheet. Not very solid if you ask me, but they were pretty cheap at one point.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

+1 on veneer thin-ness. (is that a word?) It takes no time at all to sand through it. You have to be careful even when sanding the first coat of finish. As always, you pay for what you get. If you want 40 buck ply, that's what you get. If you want real cabinet ply, shell out the bucks..... As mentioned, it's fine for the carcass or bases, IMO.

Just my $0.02.

[Don Alexander]

only ever use plywood from HD or Lowes for stuff like shop cabinets anything i want to actually be quality and look good i buy elsewhere

[Don Morris]

Don Alexander said it all. HD stuff is filler. The good stuff I don't worry about sanding through on the first pass. Bottom line: I don't need to pay good money for filler, but will pay good money for good stuff.

[Rick Lasita]

Just bought some of this for a project. Paid $43 per sheet vs $44 for the birch plywood. A couple of observations. 1) this stuff smells like s**t - I don't know if it is the resin adhesive they use or what, but the odor is terrible. I managed through it though. It splinters rather easily both witht he grain and across the grain. Overall, I will pay a dollar more for the birch. Just sayin'

[Mike Cutler]

Michael

It's "OK". It will do for a budget project, but it is a little unstable. In a frame and panel application it's suitable, and will actually paint up pretty nice. A coat of Zinssers primer, sanded after first application then subsequently "reprimed", and you can get a pretty decent paint surface.
It potato chips after it's cut if it's not kept lying flat. Don't lean the sheets against the walls unsupported. If you cut a buch of panels and don't have time to get them into their frames, or you'll be screwing and gluing later. Keep them flat with clamps until you're ready.

[John TenEyck]

Maybe quality in general is taking a nose dive, not just at HD. I paid something like $65 a sheet for 3/4" white birch plywood, not lumber core, plywood, at my local full service lumber yard. They don't even carry the cheaper red birch anymore - of course. The veneer is extremely thin and brittle. I didn't measure it, but I'd bet it's not much over 0.010" thick, almost too thin to sand at all. Cross cutting required taping to prevent splintering. The core plies were nice and uniform. About the only good thing I remember about it. Made in Canada, if I remember correctly.